What does Artur Beterbiev need to do to win the trilogy?

Probably be 5-10 years younger than his current age.

 

Embrace his Russian heritage and become a walking PED factory.

 

Throw more punches, or land a big shot that hurts Bivol and changes the fight. He never had the work rate to outpoint Bivol. Bivol would always be favored to win a decision. Those who picked Beterbiev thought he could hurt anyone including Bivol.

It's similar to the GGG Canelo. When GGG was KOing everybody his fans expected him to beat anyone he fought and that Jacobs and Canelo wouldn't be any different. Well it turns out once he stepped up to better competition he was unable to really hurt them like he did the others. Same with Beterbiev to an extent. Everyone was making him out to be a KO machine, and he was, but none of those guys were someone as good as Bivol. Bivol is really a special talent in terms of his ability to outbox, with hand speed, accuracy and activity.

How is Beterbiev going to win a decision? He can't keep up with Bivol, unless he goes all out, which maybe he'll do more of in a 3rd fight. In the 2nd fight it was like he was holding back and letting Bivol win. He fought the rematch as if he was saving himself for a 3rd fight. Bivol was the only one trying to win. In the first fight the decision was disagreed with by many fans. Most thought Bivol clearly won. Was it a robbery? I don't know but Bivol really asserted himself in the rematch. But Beterbiev would need to "go for it" in a 3rd fight, actually try to press the action and hurt Bivol or at least take the fight to him. You never got the sense that Beterbiev took the fight to Bivol. When he did press the action it wasn't sustained action. Does Beterbiev have the gas tank to keep up with Bivol? It seems that he takes many rounds off and only decides to do a sustained attack every couple of rounds or so. This isn't going to win you many decisions let alone against Bivol a guy that can throw and throw and pile up points.

 

He needs to pace himself better so he doesn't gas like how he did in the 2nd fight. He is 40 years old. He can't maintain the same pace he did 5 years ago. But in the rounds where he isn't as aggressive, he cannot be getting his ears boxed off. He has to be able to win some of those low paced rounds. Then make sure he wins all the rounds that he steps his aggression up. I don't think he will stop Bivol because Bivol's defense is too good and he can take a punch. When he does get hurt, he knows how to survive. It would have to be a situation where Bivol makes a mistake and Beterbiev capitalizes IMO. Other than that, I think it's a fight that goes 12 rounds.

 

He already is

 

He needs to fill up the KO meter and press the X button at the right moment.

 

He already is. Why else do you think he takes a bout a year to fight and is "always injured"? He's on definitely on ****.

 

This content is protected

 

He’s not going to outbox Bivol. My idea is to NOT pace himself for a 12 round fight. If it goes 12 rounds, he’s probably lost.

Pace himself for an 8rd fight. In the last fight, when he was beating Bivol up for a few rounds? He should have INCREASED the tempo and aggression, stopped worrying about conserving anything. He might have stopped Bivol if he’d done that.

 

He needs to get his hormones back.

 

I think he should be 5-6 years younger, but that's obviously impossible. Realistically, I think he'll have to do a lot of bodywork from the start of the match to push Bivol down and reduce his mobility, then knock him out or shake him up several times in the final part of the match. Difficult, really difficult, I think Bivol is the clear favorite in their third fight.

 

He needs to look at the 2nd fight and look at the adjustments Bivol made in timing & countering (look at rounds 7 & 8 where Bivol started seeing Arturs looping right and would move out to evade then counter with eye-catching combos), and look to work something unpredictable into his gameplan that catches Bivol with something big that he doesn't see coming.

Outside of that, these would be the things that I would look at for AB:-

+ Concentrate on the body early and often, even to the point of not worrying about head-hunting; get in close and work the midsection; this also helps as it avoids the countering rythym that Bivol established in the 2nd half of fight 2
+ Nearer the mid-point start working in unpredictable short hooks as Bivol starts getting elbows lower
+ A companion to point 1, don't let Bivol establish a distance tempo on the outside, need to force him to infight which is the weakest point of his game.

Obviously the biggest issue in this for Artur is he is no spring chicken and will need to use up energy cutting off the ring and getting up close.