Major update in Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol rematch
It has only been two weeks since Artur Beterbiev was crowned undisputed light-heavyweight champion of the world after defeating Dmitry Bivol in an incredibly high-quality contest in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Instantaneously as soon as the fight ended, the entire boxing world called for a rematch to take place.
Now after much of the fallout, there is further news on whether this will become a reality.
Much of the talk before the fight was about whether knockout artist Beterbiev could walk down the skillful, slick, Bivol.
For the first few rounds, it seemed as if this was exactly how the fight was going to play out.
Beterbiev tried to walk his opponent down but Bivol’s superb footwork was seemingly allowing him to have great success picking his man apart.
The man who previously had a 100 per cent knockout ratio was growing in frustration and by the fourth round, he began to increase the pace, forcing Bivol to take a back foot.
This fight was plenty mental as well as physical and by round seven the IBO world champion rocked Beterbiev.
The momentum swung time and time again, but the IBF, WBC and WBO world champion performed better in the championship rounds.
For the first time, Artur Beterbiev had gone the full twelve rounds.
The judges scored the fight 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114 (draw) in Beterbiev’s favour, resulting in him becoming the first undisputed light-heavyweight champion of the four-belt era and handing Bivol the first loss of his career.Anthony Joshua is injured
Since the fight, Bivol’s team have filed a protest over the controversial 116-112 card.
Despite it being a very close fight, the majority of people had Bivol winning and thus have demanded a rematch.
However, on the 17th of October, Artur Beterbiev was ordered by the IBF to defend his world title against 13-1 German, Michael Eifert.
Not only that but Bivol himself has also been rumoured in potential interim fights against the likes of Callum Smith and Albert Ramirez.
However, yesterday Eddie Hearn speaking to Fight Hub TV said the rematch will be next.
”His Excellency has told us the rematch is on. We will wait for final confirmation.”
Therefore, this implies that despite talk of potential interim fights, these won’t be taking place and the rematch will be next.
This may imply that Beterbiev will have to vacate his IBF belt, resulting in the rematch no longer having all four belts up for grabs.
While this is disappointing for fans, especially Bivol, the opportunity to correct the only wrong in his career so far will serve as a much stronger motivator than any belt.
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