Dmitrii Yurievich Bivol vs. Artur Asilbekovich Beterbiev

Thanks, likewise squire

This content is protected

Chin chin

 

I'm severely torn on this match, of course I want Bivol to win, and I genuinely think he can, but I fear Beterbiev's relentless pressure will get to him and break him down eventually. As far as people mocking his chin, Bivol took two genuinely vicious shots from Pascal and Smith, both of them shook him up, but I was impressed that he stayed on his feet. Most people would have been dropped by similar shots, so they shouldn't bank on his chin being that easy to crack. Bivol is also the superior boxer of the two, and his ability to land sharp and accurate combinations off the back foot while consistently moving, especially when being pressured is a thing of beauty. So it's going to be one of two scenarios, Bivol will outbox him for a long stretch, then Artur's body work will take a toll, open up the head and he gets knocked out. Or the same scenario occurs, and instead of crumbling, Bivol just has a rough patch or two, possibly goes down, but finishes the fight on his feet and wins a close decision. I'm not entirely convinced that Beterbiev's achilles is 100% healed, so there is a possibility he won't be able to properly sit down on his punches and that might hamper his pressure. Which will play right into Bivol's hands, so solely banking on age and his recent wear and tear being a factor, I'm leaning towards Bivol by UD, with my heart and head being in alignment, although not with an overwhelming degree of certainty.

 

That weasel Dev Sahni stirring between E-Hearn and Beterbiev and it got a little spicy between them after that. Also, it seemed to me like Sahni was trying to sow seeds of doubt in Bivol's mind by the way he framed some of his questions about Beterbiev to him

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

As CST said, I do think Bivol's rare ability to throw counter punches in combination on the backfoot with great speed and accuracy is going to cause Beterbiev problems and I'm intrigued to see how Beterbiev deals with that and the way Bivol effortlessly glides in and out of range when doing so too

And yes, Bivol does have a good chin. Let's not forget all these LHWs he's fought are bigger or much bigger than him and the only time we've seen him hurt was by the much bigger and very physically strong and powerful Joe Smith

He also hurt the much bigger Smith and the way bigger Zurdo with single shots both of whom are very durable with really good chins

That being said, when Beterbiev is doing this he looks downright scary and damn near unstoppable so even if Bivol is able to outbox him things can go pear shaped for him at any point and it doesn't matter how good your chin is because Beterbiev specializes in dropping and stopping fighters who've never been dropped or stopped or if so very rarely

This content is protected

This is one of the most intriguing match ups ever and both of them have pretty unique styles