Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol: What’s really at stake in the undisputed light heavyweight showdown

When it comes to big-time professional boxing, there are different levels and categorizations within the sub-genre of what fans and experts often refer to as “superfights.”

There’s the curiosity kind, of course, like next month’s Mike Tyson-Jake Paul circus, which is designed to wake up every casual fan you know, from grandmas to pre-teens, and everyone in between. And then there are fights like Saturday’s can’t-miss offering in the light heavyweight division when Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) and Dmitry Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) square off in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

Both of these Russian-born fighters are anything but household names outside of boxing. And getting either one to say a bad word about each other — or even a prediction as to how they might win the fight — is similar to attempting to derive blood from a stone. 

The best news, however, is that none of that even remotely matters.

This matchup, which is set to crown the first four-belt, undisputed champion at light heavyweight, has so much more to do with history and the celebration of two greats finally doing battle in a true, 50/50 fight for 175-pound supremacy than it does anything superficial like social media bragging rights.

This is boxing at its very best. 

And the closer one looks at the matchup of Bivol, 33, putting his WBA title at stake against the WBC/WBO/IBF crowns of the battle-tested Beterbiev, the more one realizes that, in terms of the stakes, this is potentially about even more than the coveted undisputed title during this era of proliferated (and often meaningless) titles. 

During an already gluttonous stretch of all-time great boxers vying for supremacy atop the pound-for-pound rankings, where upwards three fighters (Oleksandr Usyk, Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue) hold legitimate arguments for the top spot, Beterbiev-Bivol has an opportunity to not just crash the P4P party but potentially overtake it. 

With both fighters sitting at the back end of the top 5 of most lists (including CBS Sports), there’s no greater achievement from a P4P standpoint than to defeat a fellow top-5 opponent in a truly great matchup like this that pairs two unbeaten champions against one another. Not only are both looking to add the cherry on top of their respective resumes and legacies, the winner just might be able to stand alone after the fight as the best boxer in the entire sport. 

And even if a cynical fan might point out the unavoidable fact that Beterbiev, who fights out of Montreal, is already 39 and is entering the fight fresh off of knee surgery that delayed its original date, even that doesn’t take away from the expectations of what Saturday might bring. 

“If I have some problem [with my knee], the medical commission would not let me to go and fight,” Beterbiev told CBS Sports last week. “If I am here, I am ready to fight. I believe that everything happened at the right time. During this time, we did a couple of fights for unification [in recent years]. We did not stay sitting on the chair and waiting for this fight.”

From a modern historical standpoint, Beterbiev-Bivol belongs in the same sentence as recent unification superfights involving established, unbeaten champions like Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao (2015), Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev I (2016), Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. (2023) and Usyk-Tyson Fury (2024). 

Both boxers are surefire, future Hall-of-Famers already, with Beterbiev riding an absurd career-long streak of having knocked out every opponent he has faced while Bivol is just two years removed from unanimously winning fighter of the year honors after defeating Canelo Alvarez and the 44-0 Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez. 

Many have rightfully given public thanks to Turki Alalshikh and the Saudi Arabian government for financing this bout. And in some ways, it’s fair to question given the lack of crossover commercial attention being given to both fighters if this bout could have even taken place without them (and certainly not on a stage this large). 

“I don’t know about it but if [Alalshikh] helped for this fight to happen, I think we know that man. He helped us for this fight. But we never know if it wouldn’t have happened [without him],” Beterbiev said. “Every good boxer wants to have an opportunity like this. I’m really happy. I’ve been working toward this goal everyday.”

Both fighters had circled one another for some time in recent years while staying busy with other big names and champions. But each always knew the likely possibility that the other would be waiting. And the fact that it took this long only makes the fight bigger in terms of its importance, particularly because of all four titles being at stake. 

“Just like how a soldier wants to be a general, [becoming undisputed champion] is the same,” Bivol told TNT Sports this week during his “Face-Off” with Beterbiev. “This is the final step for all of pro boxers. What are you going to achieve more in this weight class if we talk about trophies and belts? Everything was for this.”

What makes the fight even more special is the fantastic contrast of styles as Beterbiev, despite a strong amateur background, is much more well known for his crippling power in both hands. Bivol, meanwhile, is much more of the pure boxer between the two known for his upright stance, quick hands and darting style of in-and-out attack. 

“[Bivol] is a good boxer, he has good experience in both professional and amateur,” Beterbiev said. “I can’t say anything [in terms of a prediction]. I can lie to you but it’s not true. Nobody knows what is going to happen but I will try to do my best. We will see. We don’t know that. This is boxing, it’s not chess. We will see.”

So, does that make Bivol the toughest test of Beterbiev’s career?

“We will see,” Beterbiev said. “I am not really interested in this now. After the fight, maybe I can answer this question.”

Bivol, for his part, was just as elusive when it came to pinning down any definitive statements regarding the fight. Although their styles may differ, the two former teammates in the Russian amateur system appear to hold a ton of respect for one another, even if they aren’t close on a personal level outside of the ring. 

“I just need to be my best version. I just need to do my work and be focused every second to use all my skills for 100%,” Bivol said. “I am not Nostradamus, where I can say what will happen. But I will come to the ring and bring my skills and will try for a victory.”

No trash talk. No unnecessary gestures of machismo. And no BS.

Beterbiev-Bivol is about as grand an event as boxing can produce between two of the classiest and talented fighters who would have been just fine competing in just about any era. 

Lucky for boxing fans in 2024, their era is now.