I am not surprised, Turki Alalshikh wants Bivol - Beterbiev 3. Benavidez deserved to face the WBC world champion, so it is right that the American is now WBC world champion. Most likely after the winner of Bivol - Beterbiev 3 (which I think will be Bivol) will face Benavidez.
Don’t think there is much interest in a 3rd. Turki is crazy enough to throw money at it to make a fight only he wants to watch.
Benevidez’s promoter refused to have the fight in Saudi Arabia and wanted the fight in the US. Bivol was ready to fight Benevidez if they were willing to accept the fight, but the Benevidez camp decided to go to purse bid instead. The promoter threatened to get Bivol stripped weeks ago if he didn’t agree to fight in the US. They knew Bivol is working with Turki, so they used boxing politics and the backing of the WBC to force Bivol to vacate. Benevidez never got frozen out. His camp was being a bunch of bitches. This content is protected
You need to stop spreading fake news. If Bivol wanted the fight they would have won the purse bid and forced the Saudi fight. They never bothered, so everything you said is not true. Turki was not interested and Bivol decided he wasn't either. A Vegas PPV with Benavidez would have been his biggest fight since Canelo. Would have sold the place out. Instead he chose to fight in Saudi at 3am in front of 6000 people.
Way too early to call this a duck. Even though I'd rather see Bivol fight Bena, the case for the trilogy is strong and simple: it's 1-1 after two close fights, and this is the decider (even though in reality Beterbiev is inevitably declining fast and each fight plays more into Bivol's hands). Bivol's got unfinished business. When he starts dragging semi-retired guys up from lower weight classes, fighting unproven fringe contenders, and complaining about how irrelevant his clear #1 rival in the division is (which is still Artur, btw), then I'll call it a duck.
It could well be a style make fights situation Benavidez has more output than Beterbiev and could well beat Bivol. He has basically seen the absolute best version of Bivol against Beterbiev II and fancies his chances. There are no more tricks to reveal. Beterbiev on the other hand could well batter Benavidez even at this stage It could be a styles Triangle Theory between them all at this stage
The vast majority of Beterbiev's punches landed on Bivol's gloves. Bivol landed more, cleaner and better.
You misread my post. Read it again, slowly this time. And Smith does have a decent chance against Benavidez, he's experienced, he's got a decent jab, and hits like a stack of bricks. It's not outlandish for Smith to beat Benavidez.
I had the first for Beterbiev and the second for Bivol. But I don’t really care about a third fight. There are other more interesting fights to be made like Benavidez.
Both Compubox and Jabbr have Beterbiev outlanding Bivol. Plus he was the aggressor who outworked the opponent. Close fight, but saying Bivol was robbed is delusional.
Compubox has Bivol outlanding Beterbiev. But even if it didn't, I don't think either compubox or jabbr are entirely accurate. Like I said, almost all of Beterbiev's punches were blocked by Bivol's guard. In terms of clean punches, Bivol clearly landed more. I agree Beterbiev should get credit for being the aggressor, but it shouldn't outweigh Bivol's effective work.
Yes, it does, my bad. But not by many. Bivol has the edge in clean punches and defense, but Beterbiev has the edge in everything else. A lot of people had Beterbiev winning this. Not a robbery at all.