The rescheduled date for the undisputed fight between WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol and IBF/WBC/WBO champ Artur Beterbiev was revealed last Saturday night: October 12th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
It’ll be great for the fans if the fight comes off without another injury postponement. Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) suffered a ruptured meniscus while training for his scheduled undisputed 175-lb championship fight against Bivol on June 1st.
The fight now has a new date of October 12th, provided Beterbiev, 39, doesn’t experience a setback. With injuries like that, you must consider the rescheduled date tentative.
Hopefully, Beterbiev can make it through training camp without his knee problem causing another postponement. Coming off from an injury like that is tricky, and it might be a little hasty to reschedule it for October.
Bivol’s Confidence After Zinad Fight
“I see his weakness now. I catch him, and I can do it again,” said Dmitry Bivol to Boxing Social about dropping Malik Zinad in round one last Saturday night. “I’m a professional boxer, and I have to change my tactics at any time in the ring.’
Zinad was hitting Bivol repeatedly with stiff jabs and right hands in the first round, but he left himself open to a left hook and was dropped. It was a surprise that Zinda was able to hit Bivol as often as he did, because Bivol’s opponents, Canelo Alvarez and Gilberto Ramirez rarely laid a glove on him in their fights.
Of course, that was two years ago, and Bivol hasn’t looked the same in two consecutive fights now against Zinad and Lyndon Arthur. Bivol looked fatigued during the build-up to Saturday’s fight with Zinda, and there are questions about whether he needs to move up to cruiserweight or if his age is starting to show.
“I had enough time in my training camp to change sparring partners tactics. I feel great, and I will be ready for October 12th, and we will see,” said Bivol.
“I don’t know what he thinks. Maybe he’s busy now and watching or not. It doesn’t matter,” said Bivol when asked what he thought Beterbiev was thinking after watching his performance against Zinad last night.
Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) was fortunate that the fight with Beterbeiv did get moved because he looked very beatable last night in his fight against replacement opponent Malik Zinad (22-1, 16 KOs) at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Dmitry won by a sixth-round knockout against his lower-level opponent, but he was getting hit and looked almost timid. Bivol looked average against a fighter that Beterbiev would have likely blown out of the water in one or two rounds.
