Beterbiev Claims He’s Healthy: Is He, Though?

Fans and the media are skeptical about three-belt light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev’s claim that his surgically right knee is healthy going into his fight against WBA light welterweight champion Dmitry Bivol on Saturday.

(Photo credit: Leigh Dawney/Queensberry Promotions)

During the media workout on Wednesday, IBF, WBC, and WBO champion Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) didn’t move around the ring much and nowhere near the mobility or the quickness that Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) showed during his portion of the workout.

Some saw this as a red flag that Beterbiev’s statements about his right knee’s health were incorrect. His knee isn’t 100%, and he will have problems with Bivol unless he can get to him early this Saturday night, October 12th, at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The two champions are fighting for the undisputed light heavyweight championship.

“I don’t think this is the type of fight where Beterbiev can plot his toward Bivol because he’s going to be very shifty, and he’s going to be moving,” said Shawn Porter to Probox TV, discussing how Artur Beterbiev’s surgically repaired blown out meniscus knee injury could hamper his performance against Dmitry Bivol.

If Bivol comes to Beterbiev, that will give him a chance to land his big shots, but he won’t be able to chase him down like he does his other opponents. It’s been a while since Beterbiev fought a mover. The last two fighters who used any movement against Beterbiev were Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Radivoje Kalajdzic. Those fights were years ago.

“Self-preservation kicks in. Now, we’re doing things to preserve that leg, and self-consciously, we don’t even know we’re doing it,” said Porter. “So, it’s very possible he’ll get in the ring moving a certain way that he self-consciously developed to protect that knee, and it may slow him down from getting after Bivol.”

If Beterbiev had been taking it easy during training camp with his knee, he could have had problems against Bivol because he’s not going to be able to fight at 60% and win this fight. Bivol is too good.

“This is the kind of fight where Beterbiev will need to use his hands and feet together order to catch up to Bivol. He’s going to be at a low deficit for a lot of reasons. For me, it’s the speed and quickness that sort of starts this fight for both guys. Bivol is starting ahead of him, whereas Beterbiev is at the starting line,” said Porter.

There’s no way of knowing if Beterbiev’s knee is fine, as he says, or if it’s not at full strength. He’s only had four months to come back from his surgery, and that’s not a lot of time for that kind of knee injury.

“Those are just two of the reasons [age and injuries for Beterbiev], but there’s also someone called Dmitry Bivol, who is also a factor because he’s an excellent fighter and a great in and out fighter. He has excellent defense and one of the best jabs in the sport today,” said Chris Algieri.