It is not long to go now until Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol throw hands on Saturday night in Saudi Arabia.
All the hard work is done now and both fighters will be focused on making weight right now.
Bivol comes into the fight with a 100 per cent KO record of 20-0-20 KO and said to the Stomping Ground Podcast before the fight:
“Hello! I’m good, thank you. I didn’t think they had Fred Perry here.
What do you mean, “Fred Perry”?
The brand you’re wearing. I think it’s cool!
How are you?
I’m good, thanks. Let’s talk about fight week. There’s no tension between the two of you, but have you ever spoken to Dmitry Bivol over the years? Do you know each other?
We know each other. I’ve spoken with him in the past.
Have you ever talked about fighting each other?
No, that was a long time ago.
Did you ever spar with each other or come across each other?
A long time ago, I think we did spar.
How did that go?
I don’t remember.
Oh, that’s not very fun!
What does becoming an undisputed champion mean to you?
You know, it’s the main goal in professional boxing. It’s very important to me.
What I find funny about you is that whenever I speak to you, you say you don’t like boxing and you don’t watch it, but you’re a great boxer. That makes me wonder—can you still appreciate what being undisputed means, even if you don’t love the sport as a fan?
Yeah, I really want to be undisputed. But that doesn’t mean I’m a huge fan of boxing; I just want to do my job the best way I can.
What would it mean to you to be undisputed?
It would mean that I’ve done my job well.
In a way, if you win all four belts, you’ve almost completed boxing. Do you feel that if you win on Saturday night, you could hang up the gloves and consider it a complete career?
We’ll see. I don’t know.
What does legacy mean to you? Do you want kids 10, 20, or 30 years from now to hear about you?
I’m not really thinking about those things.
When I see you training, I get a bit scared. You do push-ups on your wrists and everything. Have you always trained like that?
I always try to push myself.
Your style is very different from what we see in Europe or America. Is that something you’ve had from a young age, that military-style training?
I think so, but I don’t know.
What do you do when you’re not fighting?
What do you mean?
When you’re not sparring or training, what do you do?
I relax, like normal people.
What does “normal people” do?
I watch sports. I watch football and do different activities like jogging.
Ah, that’s part of your training. When you’re in the dressing room before your fight, what goes through your mind? Do you ever get nervous?
Of course, I get nervous. I’m a simple person; it’s normal to feel that way.
This fight is the ultimate matchup in boxing. We see Dmitry Bivol, a master boxer, against you, a powerful puncher. Would you say that if it weren’t for his promoter, Turki Alalshikh, we might never have seen this fight?
Yes, I really appreciate that we have this fight. He organized it, and without his help, we might not have seen it.
You’ve knocked out every single opponent. Do you think you can knock out Dmitry Bivol?
We’ll see.
You’ve got to give me more than that!
We’ll see!
How do you envision the fight playing out?
I’m not really a predictor; I’m just a boxer.
Lastly, if you could visit your younger self when you dreamed of being a world champion boxer, what advice would you give?
Keep working hard.”
A little bit of differences there obviously between the sense of humor/banter between the UK interviewer and Russia’s Beterbiev.
But he remained calm when pressed on if he will knock out Bivol, impressively.
The fight means a lot to him though, clearly.
Alas, Beterbiev is cold as ice and seems to be in great form coming into this on Saturday night.
Same can be said for Bivol of course.
What a matchup, a classic for boxing fans the world over to look forward to.
