Beterbiev Hints At Cruiserweight Move After Bivol Fight

Artur Beterbiev says he’s considering moving up in weight if he’s victorious in his undisputed light heavyweight clash against WBA 175-lb champion Dmitry Bivol on October 12th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The IBF, WBC, and WBO champion Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) states that he will have accomplished his goal of capturing all the belts at light heavyweight if he’s victorious in his 12 round contest against Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs). However, he’s still not sure what he’ll do next.

If Beterbiev does move up to cruiserweight, fans would be interested in a fight between him and unbeaten IBF champion Jai Opetaia, who is viewed as the best fighter in the division.

Opetaia is a good fighter, but he looked uncomfortable with the pressure put on him in his last fight against Mairis Briedis in their rematch on May 18th.

Beterbiev-Bivol will be shown live on ESPN+ at the Kingdom Arena in a split broadcast event. The undercard will be displayed on another network.

It will be difficult for Beterbiev to defeat Bivol because he will have to cut off the ring and chase him around the ring all night. In recent training footage of Bivol, he’s using a lot of movement, which indicates that he will try to keep Beterbiev on the outside.

“I’m not excited about a face-off. I’m excited about a fight. He’s a good boxer and he’s my challenge,” said Artur Beterbiev to the Queensberry YouTube channel, talking about his fight against Dmitry Bivol on October 13th.

“I don’t know. I already had two fights toward undisputed in a unification fight, and the two guys are good too, and we’ll see what happens with this guy,” said Beterbiev when asked if Bivol is the toughest fight of his career.

Beterbiev has recently knocked out Callum Smith, Anthony Yarde, and WBO champion Joe Smith Jr. None of those fighters gave Beterbiev many problems. Yarde fought well earlier in the fight but was worn down by the pressure from Beterbiev and knocked out in the eighth round last year on January 28th.

“No. No fights are personal,” said Beterbiev. “It’s only like I want another belt. I feel like in the boxing gym, when you do a job, I feel like there is space to do better. I always feel like this. I need to do more training on my skills. I will try to be good boxer.”

Trying to box Bivol might not be a good idea for Beterbiev because he’s better off focusing on his usual fighting style by looking to knock him out. If Beterbiev gets into a boxing match, he would be playing into his hands.

“My goal is to be a good boxer one day. It means I’m not there yet. I need to do hard training because I’m not there. I’m not a good boxer yet. I will be a good boxer if I do hard training,” said Beterbiev.

“I think for this category, it’s the main goal,” said Beterbiev. He’ll have gone as far as he wanted if he captured the undisputed at light heavyweight. “We’ll see after. Challenges may be in different categories. Go up [in weight]. I’m not focused on these things,” said Beterbiev.