What Bivol did to Beterbiev does not sit right with me

Spinal?

 

IMO the root cause of the fight not happening earlier was Bob Arum and Top Rank, NOT Beterbiev or Bivol personally, those guys are both warriors. Arum was on record multiple times saying there wasn't any money in the fight for him to make it

 

It’s not like he’s been fighting the whole time since the Beterbiev rematch. He had back surgery and has been inactive nearly a year and half while he recovered. Now he’s having a soft touch. Let’s see what he does after this fight.

Also, he already beat Beterbiev twice. I can’t see any way you could score the first fight for Beterbiev. Does anyone really need to see Bivol beat him a third time?

 

This video says it all:

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Beterbiev isn't the type of guy to trash talk like that. He clearly had been trying to get Bivol in the ring for years, says Bivol is delaying. Bivol just smiles with a stupid grin.

A lame age-out, then Bivol STILL lost.

 

Actually Bivol seems boring to me, with his robotic style.

I want to see Beterbiev vs Benavidez. It's much more interesting in my opinion.

 

This could have happened years ago if Beterbiev didn't give Bivol his insta rematch.

 

Ironically, Beterbiev finished both fights stronger and won the 12th round in both fights. If both fights went on longer, I would have picked Beterbiev to win via TKO.

Beterbiev's biggest problem was trying to pace himself in rounds 7-10 in the rematch and that's when Bivol did alot of eye catching work that won him the fight. It was mental fatigue. When he pushed the pace, he realised he actually had more in the tank than Bivol did.....

No wonder Vadim Kornilov swerved the rematch.

I just hope Beterbiev has been juicing his nuts off these past 15 months and comes back like a monster

 

Beterbiev being the somewhat better fighter makes this whole situation worse because its like Bivol is trying to get father time to win it for him. The 24 rounds these two have shared suggest Bivol would not have won a trilogy if these guys fought when Beterbiev was 35. But Bivols going to win the trilogy if it happens because Beterbiev will be well past 40 by the time that last fight happens.

 

I don't love seeing fighters age out their opponents, either, but I will say this much. Beterbiev is still fighting at an extremely high level at his advanced age. He's obviously not at the peak performance he was at when he fought Gvozdyk, but, to me, his drop off seems much smaller than most people are suggesting. He has to be one of the best boxers ever at the ages of 39 and 40, if not in accomplishments then in form. He still looks to me to be at least 85 to 90% of what he was six years ago. Throughout his entire pro career, he has aged like fine wine.

 

"I don't love seeing fighters age out their opponents, either, but I will say this much. Beterbiev is still fighting at an extremely high level at his advanced age."

How do we know he's been gone so long? It's been 18 months. When looking at them old people the difference between 40,41,42,43 is huge. Each and every one of those years makes a big difference. Beterbiev is going to be 42 probably when the trilogy happens. He might be done at the top level already.

Nowadays everyone and their mother can fight at a high level in their late 30s. The 85-90% of their prime. That's true of almost no one in their early 40s.

 

That's a fair point. I'm just going off of what I saw in his last two fights against Bivol. There very well could be a massive drop off in their rubber match.

 

Since when did ‘if the fight was longer then I think X would’ve won’ become a way to gauge a fight? If Fury was allowed to pack bricks into the gloves I think he would’ve beaten Usyk… so therefore I suppose Fury is better?

Beterbiev had two gos at it and still couldn’t figure it out. What makes you think he’d be any different the third time?

 

Bivol beat him twice but Beterbiev is still ‘the better fighter’?

And was there really much difference between Beterbiev at 40 than at 35? There was no major decline. (I’m sure the ‘contaminated finding’ helped with that too…)

 

It is possible to look at a trilogy and come to the conclusion the guy who won 1 fight was better.

 

Let's not forget these are two of the most amazing fighters of the last ten years and it was a great fortune to be able to see them in the same ring twice.