Artur Beterbiev will make the first defense of the undisputed light heavyweight championship in a rematch against Dmitry Bivol on Saturday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (DAZN PPV, 11 a.m. ET).
Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) defeated Bivol by majority decision last October to add the WBA belt to his WBC, WBO and IBF titles. It was the first time Beterbiev went the distance, ending his 20-fight KO streak. Beterbiev has held at least one of the belts since Nov. 11, 2017 — an impressive seven-year-plus reign as a champ. This will be Beterbiev’s 10th defense of the IBF title, seventh defense of the WBC title, fourth of the WBO title and first of the WBA belt.
After his victory against Bivol, Beterbiev said he wasn’t happy with his performance and that he needed to get better.
“I wanted to box today with more quality,” Beterbiev said. “I don’t know why, but I didn’t like this fight. But I’ll be better one day.”
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) suffered the first defeat of his professional career against Beterbiev. He landed more punches than Beterbiev (142 to 137) and was more effective, landing 34% of those punches to only 20% for Beterbiev, but that wasn’t enough. He lost by scorecards of 113-115, 112-116 and 114-114.
“I have another chance,” Bivol said. “Not too many people get another chance. People like the fight which they saw the first time and they want to see it again, see me in the ring again. It’s good, I have to work for it.”
Beterbiev is a slight favorite to win the rematch at -125 per ESPN BET.
In the co-main event, Joseph Parker will now face Martin Bakole after IBF champion Daniel Dubois was forced to withdraw from the fight due to illness on Thursday. The winner of the fight could be headed to a fight against Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed championship.
Parker (35-3, 23 KOs), a former WBO heavyweight champion, is riding a five-fight winning streak, including decision victories over Deontay Wilder in 2023 and Zhilei Zhang last March.
Bakole (21-1, 16 KOs) has won 10 consecutive fights (eight by stoppage) since a loss to Michael Hunter in 2018. In August, Bakole defeated Jared Anderson by fifth-round KO on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov card in Los Angeles.
Let’s look at both fights by the numbers, with data from ESPN Research and CompuBox.
Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol
23: Beterbiev and Bivol’s combined number of title fights (Bivol 13, Beterbiev 10).
3: Russian-born male boxers to hold at least three world titles at one time (Beterbiev, Kostya Tszyu and Sergey Kovalev).
12: Undisputed men champions in boxing’s four-belt era.
1: Undisputed light heavyweight champion in the four-belt era. Beterbiev earned that distinction with a narrow victory over Bivol in October. With a win in Saturday’s rematch, Beterbiev would become just the seventh fighter in the four-belt era to successfully defend an undisputed title.
50%: Percentage of power punches landed by Bivol against Beterbiev in their first encounter (84 of 168), against only 29% for Beterbiev (90 of 306). Bivol was also more effective in jabs landed with 23% (58 of 255) to just 13% for Beterbiev (47 of 376). Bivol landed 142 of his 423 total punches thrown (34%), to Beterbiev’s 137 of 682 (20%). Beterbiev was the more active fighter, throwing 259 more punches than Beterbiev, and displayed constant pressure.
33: Power punches landed by Bivol in the first six rounds of his first fight, against just 23 for Beterbiev. But it was a different story in the last six rounds, where Beterbiev landed 67 power punches to Bivol’s 51. In the last two rounds, those numbers were more impressive for Beterbiev, who landed 29 power punches to Bivol’s 19.
13.8%: Percentage of landed punches against Bivol in his 24 professional fights, including his defeat to Beterbiev. Bivol is one of the best defensive fighters in the world. Only lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson allows a lower percentage (13.7%). Bivol also lands an impressive 8.4 jabs per round. Compare that to 6.0 for Beterbiev and just 4.6 for the light heavyweight division.
8 and 4: Number of rounds, out of the 12 rounds they fought in their first encounter, in which Beterbiev and Bivol were separated by four punches or fewer.
30.1%: Percentage of Beterbiev’s total punches landed per round — 18.2 of 60.5.
34%: Percentage of Bivol’s total punches landed on Beterbiev in their first fight. Beterbiev’s opponents before the Bivol fight landed just 23.2% of their total punches.
65.2: Percentage of Bivol’s thrown jabs — the highest percentage among champions and title contenders.
6: Number of title fights on the main card. The Beterbiev-Bivol 2 fight card features three fights for major world titles and three fights for interim titles. Before Dubois withdrew, there were to be seven title fights overall, four for major titles.
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Title fight: Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol, 12 rounds, for Beterbiev’s undisputed light heavyweight championship
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Joseph Parker vs. Martin Bakole, 12 rounds, heavyweights
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Title fight: Shakur Stevenson vs. Josh Padley, 12 rounds, for Stevenson’s WBC lightweight title
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Title fight: Carlos Adames vs. Hamzah Sheeraz, 12 rounds, for Adames’ WBC middleweight title
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Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Israil Madrimov, 12 rounds, for the vacant WBC junior middleweight interim title
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Joshua Buatsi vs. Callum Smith, 12 rounds, for Buatsi’s WBO light heavyweight interim title
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Zhilei Zhang vs. Agit Kabayel, 12 rounds, for the vacant WBC heavyweight interim title
95%: Knockout percentage for Beterbiev in his 21 professional fights, the highest among all current champions. After a distinguished amateur career, Beterbiev turned pro later than is typical for a boxer, when he moved to Montreal at the age of 28. He enters the rematch against Bivol at 40 years old, making him the second oldest widely recognized current male champion. He is 1-2 in three amateur fights against Usyk, the current unified heavyweight champion.
Joseph Parker vs. Martin Bakole
5: Parker’s winning streak. He has also won 11 of his last 12 fights. Parker, a former heavyweight champion, is coming in on a five-fight win streak, including 11 of his last 12. His only loss in that time frame was against Joe Joyce in 2022.
10: Consecutive victories by Bakole since his loss to Michael Hunter in 2018. Bakole has won eight of those fights by stoppage, including a fifth-round KO of Jared Anderson in August.
38.7%: Percentage of Parker’s punches to the body that land. The CompuBox average for the heavyweight division is 29.5%.
28.7%: Percentage of punches landed against Parker; 35.3% of the opponents’ power punches. Parker lands 12 punches per round (28.5%).
195: Power punches thrown by Bakole in his fight against Anderson, landing 68 of those punches.
13: Power punches landed by Bakole, of 14 thrown, in the fifth round against Anderson before the fight was stopped at 2:06 minutes of the round.
