Beterbiev vs Bivol Feature: Artur Beterbiev ‘In Focus’

Born in Russia, Beterbiev boxed as an amateur for many years. He represented the nation of his birth in many championships and won medals for the country in European Championships, World Championships, and the World Cup. As his amateur days ended, Beterbiev combined his decision to turn pro with a trans-continental move. The boxer said goodbye to Russia and moved to Montreal, Canada. He is now a Canadian citizen.

By the time Beterbiev moved into boxing professional ranks, he was 28. Ideally, his career would have been moved along at a faster pace, but a legal battle with a former promoter, some injuries, and the pandemic have seen his campaign punctuated by lengthy gaps of inactivity. Still, he is now where he wants to be: on the verge of becoming undisputed champion. To arrive at this point, Beterbiev has seen off Tavoris Cloud, Jeff Page Jr., Callum Johnson, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, and Callum Smith, among others, adding world title belts to his collection in the process. The one remaining challenge will be the most difficult of his campaign. Bivol possesses the tools that could nullify Beterbiev entirely on Saturday.

Beterbiev’s Recent Bouts

Since June 2022, Beterbiev has been in the ring three times. On that June night, Beterbiev was at the Madison Square Garden Theater to face Joe Smith Jr. He had a title strap, but Beterbiev ripped it from him, demolishing the American boxer in two rounds – sending him to the canvas three times before it was stopped. Remarkably, Smith Jr. is the only common opponent Beterbiev and Bivol share. While Beterbiev made short work of Smith Jr., Bivol claimed a unanimous decision victory over him in 2019. This is a good example of Saturday’s combatants having completely different styles of getting the job done.

From New York to London. Beterbiev was in the English capital in late January 2023 to face Anthony Yarde. An entertaining bout ensued before Beterbiev closed the show in the eighth round. At the time of the stoppage, two of the judges had Yarde ahead on their scorecards. Beterbiev doesn’t box to win on the cards – he’s all about closing the show. One full year passed before Beterbiev boxed again. Back in his home province of Quebec, Beterbiev became the first man to stop Callum Smith when he stopped the English boxer in the seventh round of the contest.

Interestingly, Beterbiev’s bout against Yarde was delayed by three months, withdrawing due to an undisclosed injury. His fight with Smith was also pushed back by five months as Beterbiev had to undergo jaw surgery due to a bone infection. As we know, Beterbiev vs Bivol should have taken place in June – this time, a ruptured meniscus prevented Beterbiev from being able to take the bout on its original date.

The Style Of A Unified Champion

With such a long time spent in the Soviet/Russian amateur boxing system, Beterbiev is fundamentally a very good boxer. This sometimes gets overlooked as people notice his perfect KO record and assume he is a strong brawler with hands that can crack rocks. While he probably could crack rocks with his mitts, it does Beterbiev a disservice not to mention the complete array of skills he incorporates into his boxing style.

Standing just under six feet tall and boxing out of the orthodox stance, Beterbiev is a front-foot fighter. He enjoys coming forward and can quickly cut off the ring on opponents. Occasionally, he switches to southpaw to help remove an opponent’s avenue of escape. He is very clever with it. Beterbiev also possesses incredible strength, something that helps him when opponents try to tie him up in clinches. Clinches will happen during his bouts as he likes things at close range. Beterbiev can break these clinches quickly if he wants and land some more punishment on an opponent desperate for a few seconds rest. The jab Beterbiev shoots out is like a cannon. It has some serious pop behind it, so getting tagged often by Artur’s rangefinder is not a good idea for any fighter. With all the power he has, Beterbiev doesn’t rush his work. He knows that sometimes, over a 36-minute fight, he should land something significant. Avoiding his power for that long has been beyond anyone he has faced so far.

Finally, and it is quite subtly, but Beterbiev uses a fair bit of upper body movement to create punching angles for himself. Against a defensively smart fighter like Bivol, we may see some wrinkles from Beterbiev in this respect—just a small aspect of the fight to maybe pay close attention to.

Finally…. Questions for Beterbiev

Ahead of what will be his hardest fight, it would be foolish not to mention a couple of things that could make life very difficult for Beterbiev in this fight. Firstly, his recent injury. As mentioned, a ruptured meniscus saw this fight postponed in June. According to reports, that injury occurred in May. Is five months long enough for a 39-year-old boxer to recover from a serious knee injury?

Also, we have seen Beterbiev knocked to the canvas a couple of times during his professional campaign. Jeff Page Jr. and Callum Johnson were the fighters who sent him to the mat. Is there a vulnerability there with Beterbiev? His style dictates that he will take punches from time to time – a fighter like Bivol is good enough to pounce if Beterbiev does get buzzed with a counter.

While Beterbiev has excellent skills and a clear power advantage, Bivol is good enough to avoid taking too much fire while piling up points on the scorecards. It will be a case of which style becomes the dominant factor in the fight. At this stage, it is impossible to call it. Bivol probably needs to be close to perfect for 36 minutes, while Beterbiev could be down on the cards but only needs a few moments of domination to close the show. It’s going to be great!