Dmitry Bivol’s face appears to be permanently swollen from the heavy punches unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev landed in their fight 112 days ago on October 12th in Riyadh. You can still see puffiness under both eyes from the hard blows the knockout artist Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) was hitting him with.
The Swelling Speaks
It’s essential that Bivol figure out a way to minimize the punches that Beterbiev hits him with in their rematch because the last thing he needs is to have more swelling on top of what is already there.
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) lost that fight by a 12-round majority decision, but he’s getting a second chance. He’ll face undisputed champion Beterbiev in 22 days on February 22nd in Riyadh.
Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Artur will start faster in the rematch and fight more aggressively rather than waiting until the halfway point as he did last time. Of course, Beterbiev will start faster because he knows he can’t afford to play catchup with Bivol after the way he was on the run the entire second half.
Hearn is still in denial about his fighter, Bivol’s loss, and believes that he deserved the victory. The British promoter is blind to how Dmitry ran from the sixth round and wasn’t interested in fighting after Beterbiev started attacking him. He didn’t like the power, and you can’t blame him.
Eddie had a conniption fit after Bivol’s loss, bellyaching nonstop about how he should have won and blah, blah, blah. He was a classic example of a sore loser. I want to think that Hearn will take the high road and show some class if Bivol gets whipped again, but that’s asking for too much.
Hearn Still Believes
“I thought Bivol still won. It was a close fight. The problem with Dmitry was the championship rounds, which I think Beterbiev won. That made it in my opinion a close fight,” said Eddie Hearn to Matchroom Boxing about the first Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol clash on October 12th last year in Riyadh.
“I still had Dmitry winning the fight. I was talking on stage, me and Frank [Warren]. I think Beterbiev is going to come out faster this time because he did manage to get a hold of Bivol until later in the fight. He started a little bit slow.
“This time, I think he’s going to come out fast. Dmitry is going to have to be very active, and very smart. He’s going to have to go through some horrible times in the fight as well, but no one is going to win this fight by a landslide. It’s going to be another great fight between two generational greats,” said Hearn.
It’s a good thing Hearn isn’t one of the judges who worked the first Beterbiev-Bivol fight because he would have made a mess of things if he’d scored it for Bivol. There would have been an uproar from fans, angry at Hearn’s bizarre pick, viewing it as favoritism for his losing fighter
“This is the kind of fight, Frank, if it’s not a Riyadh Season, it probably doesn’t happen?” said Ade Oladipo about the Beteerbiev vs. Bivol 2 clash.
“I think it eventually would have happened, but it wouldn’t have been as big a fight because the profile they’re getting from Riyadh Season,” said Frank Warren.
