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Philippines, 07 Apr 2025 |
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Bivol vs Beterbiev: Fight Analysis By Ralph Rimpell PhilBoxing.com Tue, 08 Oct 2024  This upcoming Saturday October 12, 2024 WBA light heavyweight champion (175lbs) Dimitry Bivol (23-0, 12KOs) will face Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20KOs) for the unified IBF, WBC, WBO light heavyweight titles (175lbs) in a winner take all “undisputed” unification match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. If a winner is declared at the end of the match, it will be the first time in the 4 belt era or 4 major sanctioning bodies that a fighter has held all major titles in the 175lbs division. The last unified fighter to hold 3 of the major world sanctioning body titles and be considered “undisputed” was Roy Jones Jr back in 1999 when he unified the title against IBF light heavyweight champion Reggie Johnson. Boxing fans must thank the two fighters for their willingness to fight each other and also thank Turki Turki Alalshikh of the Royal Saudi family for once again sponsoring a great card. The excitement of Bivol vs Beterbiev reminds many of us, that are old enough, of the golden age of the light heavyweight division when Michael Spinks fought Dwight Braxton AKA Dwight Muhammad Qwai to unify the WBC and WBA titles in 1983. The other fighters that were champions and one time or another during that era were Matthew Saad Muhammad, Eddie Mustapha, and Marvin Johnson who all fought each other and gave the boxing Fans great fights. It seems as though boxing history may be repeating itself because David Benavidez and David Morrel (2 undefeated fighters and former champions in the 168lbs division) are now fighting at light heavyweight and have expressed an interest to fight each other and also fight the winner of the Bivol vs Beterbiev unification match. In what order that actually happens remains to be seen. Will Benavidez and Morrel fight each other soon as is rumored? Or, instead of fighting each other will either of them fight the winner of Bivol vs Beterbiev? That all remains to be seen what will happen. For now, let’s focus on what Bivol and Beterbiev need to do to each other to earn a victory for their upcoming fight. What does Bivol need to do to defeat Beterbiev? Bivol has good speed, good footwork, and is an excellent boxer. Beterbiev is the best opponent Bivol will have faced in his career thus far. How can this Writer be so sure? It’s because Beterbiev has 3 championship belts to say he is the best and he has 100% knockout ratio stopping all 20 of his previous opponents. Bivol will have to use a good jab and movement to disrupt Beterbiev’s rhythm so he is unable to connect with his combinations and wear down Beterbiev. Bivol has to land some heavy punches while using his jab to earn Beterbiev’s respect. None of Beterbiev’s other previous 20 opponents were able to earn his respect which is why Beterbiev walked through all of them (scored knockouts or TKOs). If Bivol can outbox Betberbiev and not allow him to throw successful combinations he will have success in the fight. Bivol has to be first in landing his punches and evade Beterbiev’s punches, at least most of Beterbiev’s punches. If Bivol can do that for 12 rounds he will walk away with a unanimous decision victory. What does Beterbiev have to do to defeat Bivol? Beterbiev has to throw his combinations to wear down Bivol slowly, but surely. Beterbiev is likely the physically stronger of the two fighters so he has to impose his strength on Bivol. When Bivol sees that he is unable to handle Beterbiev’s strength, Beterbiev must cut off the ring (not allow Bivol to use the ring space to run from Beterbiev’s punches) and continue to land punches as he has done in his previous fights. Beterbiev must not attack Bivol recklessly out of overconfidence, but rather attack with intelligence as Bivol will look to counter Beterbiev to capitalize on any mistakes made during the fight. Beterbiev must throw plenty of body shots to slow Bivol down. The fighter that will win this fight is the fighter who is able to execute his fight plan and impose his will on the other fighter. Bivol has never faced another fighter like Beterbiev and neither has Beterbiev faced an opponent such as Bivol in their respective careers thus far. This Writer believes that Beterbiev’s power will be too much for Bivol to deal with. Bivol may win the first 3 rounds of the fight. Most good fighters that Beterbiev has faced generally win the early rounds against him or make the fight competitive. By the 4th round the tide of the fight will begin to change and Beterbiev will wear down Bivol round by round until the 9th round. This writer predicts Beterbiev by 9th round KO! Boxing Notes It appears newly crowned WBA jr. middleweight champion Terrence Crawford will not be able to secure a “Big fight” against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. If that is the case, there are other meaningful fights for Crawford. He can rematch with Errol Spence, Jr. whom he beat for the undisputed welterweight crown back in July 2023. The WBO has ordered WBO jr middleweight champion to defend against Crawford. Recently, Ryan Garcia has called out Terrence Crawford for a fight. That fight actually would be a “Big Fight” because of Garcia’s popularity on Social Media. Garcia does have a habit of calling out fighters than actually fighting them. Garcia is actually currently on a boxing suspension until April 2025 for testing positive for PED (Performance enhancing drugs) for his bout with Devin Haney, which he won. His win over Devin Haney was changed from a decision win to a “no contest”. This Writer would be surprised if Garcia’s camp actually agreed to a Crawford vs Garcia fight as Crawford would surely defeat Garcia, in this Writer’s opinion. Let’s see who Crawford fight’s next as it will likely not be Canelo…There are 3 fighters that are patiently awaiting the winner of Bivol vs Beterbiev: Canelo, Benavidez, and Morrel. Canelo has expressed an interest in having a rematch with Bivol who defeated him a couple of years ago in Las Vegas. Benavidez wants to fight the winner in hopes of securing a “Big Fight” with Canelo at 175lbs as he was unable to secure a fight at 168lbs. Morrel, like Benividez, name is also in the mix for fighting any of the aforementioned Fighters. This Writer looks forward to Saturday night and after Bivol vs Beterbiev to see who fights next…WBA jr middleweight champion Terrence Crawford and WBO/WBC junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora are reportedly in negotiations to fight. There seem to be some bad blood between the camps when Crawford referenced a report that Fundora had been knocked in a sparring session by Crawford’s last opponent Israil Madrimov. The word is that Fundora and Madrimov sparred 5 years ago and neither fighter touched the canvas (no knockdown), which is basically a denial. This Controversy could be easily resolved if there is film footage of the reported knockdown. The Fundora camp, specifically Fundora’s manager Sampson Lewkowicz is not happy and expressed his displeasure that Crawford is spreading these reports. (http://m.philboxing.com/news/story-171926.html). Because of this bad blood brewing, Crawford vs Fundora sounds like it’s gonna be a good fight. This writer can’t wait until this fight is signed, sealed, and delivered! Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com ***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history. "I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.  |
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