Massive fight may take place by the end of 2026.
When it was announced that Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev would finally be facing off in the ring together, there was nobody in the sport who truly knew what would happen.
Many thought they knew. Many would have claimed they were confident in their guess.
How could they be? How could anyone be with such a matchup?
What made Bivol vs. Beterbiev such an intriguing fight was the fact that they were both as dominant as fighters get, yet possessed completely different styles.
Dmitry Bivol was a master technician. His pure ability had bamboozled all who went up against him, even then-consensus pound-for-pound number one Canelo Álvarez. Just making him feel the air from the punches you inevitably missed was a Sisyphean task.
He was 23-0 and had reigned as the WBA light-heavyweight champion for over six years.
Conversely, Artur Beterbiev was a marauding monster. He was the only champion in the sport with a 100% knockout ratio. Whether you lasted just one round or made it into the last, you weren’t going the distance with him.
He was 20-0 with 20 KOs, holding three of the major belts and having been IBF champion since November of 2017, just six days after Bivol had won his first strap.
You could be good or you could be great, but if you got into the ring with Bivol or Beterbiev, you were going to lose, and it wasn’t going to be close.
Two unbeaten pound-for-pound talents who operated in the same division at the same time, represented the very same nation, and held all the belts between them.
It really does not get any better.
When the two Russians met, they went hammer-and-tong for the full 12 rounds, and despite everyone having their eyes on the same fight, there was no agreement as to who had won.
Some thought Bivol. Others fought Beterbiev. Some even gave it to either man by quite comfortable margins.
All that everyone knew was that Bivol was the one man Beterbiev could not knock out, and Beterbiev was the one man Bivol did not beat in the opinion of 100% of the viewers.
Ultimately, the cards were read out. And after tallies of 114-114, 115-113, and 116-112, Beterbiev was announced as the winner and the new undisputed light-heavyweight champion of the world.
The result split the boxing world right down the middle. Some agreed with the decision, while many others thought that Bivol should have had his hand raised.
At the end of the day, in a fight that was meant to decide who the very best in the division was, it seemed that to a certain degree, we were none the wiser.
Neither Eddie Hearn nor Frank Warren agreed with the decision. In fact, even Turki Alalshikh voiced his dissatisfaction. So, of course, what other choice was there apart from a rematch?
The two would throw down again just four months later, and they would wage a war no less ferocious than their first encounter. By the time it was over, Bivol had been named the new undisputed champion.
The scores he won by? 114-114, 115-113, and 116-112.
A mirror image of the cards previously in Beterbiev’s favour.
While there were less dissenters this time around, there were still many people who disagreed with the official victor. Exactly like the first fight, lots of differing opinions were voiced as to whose style had won out in the end.
The two bouts mimicked Marvelous Marvin Hagler vs. Sugar Ray Leonard or Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Álvarez 2 in how they so starkly divided opinion amongst spectators of the sport.
Naturally, there had to be a trilogy.
Well, so the boxing world thought.
A third fight has yet to take place. In fact, neither man has stepped in the ring since their rematch, and that has frustrated a large portion of the boxing public.
To be clear, this is not anyone’s fault. Bivol had to have back surgery and has been sidelined as a result. However, he will officially be returning at the end of May to take care of Michael Eifert, his IBF mandatory.
Beterbiev, meanwhile, was scheduled to fight Deon Nicholson on the David Benavidez vs. Anthony Yarde undercard in November, yet that bout was pulled for reasoning that still remains unconfirmed.
Benavidez, in fact, picked up Bivol’s WBC title after Bivol chose to vacate it. So, a Bivol-Beterbiev trilogy could potentially be for three belts instead of four.
With that in mind, there is now renewed hope that that trilogy could indeed take place as soon as this year.
IBA president Umar Kremlev stated in a press release, “IBA stands ready to organise a trilogy fight between Bivol and Beterbiev. These are two of the finest boxers in the world, and their rivalry represents a truly global sporting historical event.”
Kremlev went on to state that both Bivol and Beterbiev will engage in “one interim bout” before squaring off with each other once more and that they are looking to stage the fight in Moscow by the end of this year.
The pair’s first two fights took place on Riyadh Season events in Saudi Arabia. However, it does appear that the rubber match will take place in their shared homeland.
With Beterbiev now 41 years old and Bivol returning from surgery, it seems fair to ask what both men will have left and whether the official stalemate between them will be broken conclusively when they meet for a third time.
In part five of Matt McGrain’s list of the 50 greatest light-heavyweights of all time for the website “The Sweet Science”, he wrote of Archie Moore and Ezzard Charles–his picks for the division’s all-time number one and two, respectively–and said, “They were untouchable, but to one another.”
The same could very much be said of Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev.
One of them just needs to undoubtedly prove to everyone who the better man really is.
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