Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol | ESPN - October 12, 2024

[Ruthless-RKO]

Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol postponed due to injury, rest of card goes on

Artur Beterbiev is injured, and his scheduled June 1 fight with Dmitry Bivol will be postponed.

Turki Alalshikh confirmed the news this evening. The rest of the June 1 card, featuring the Queensberry vs Matchroom 5v5 series, will go on as planned.

It’s not a new story for boxing fans, who have seen the 39-year-old Beterbiev fight just 20 times in an 11-year pro career partially because repeated injuries issues have been a plague on his activity. There were other reasons, too, but any Beterbiev fight seems about a 50/50 bet to actually happen on its originally scheduled date at this point, and this one won’t.

Bivol (22-0, 11 KO) and Beterbiev will be fighting for the undisputed light heavyweight championship, as Bivol holds the WBA title and Beterbiev owns the WBC, IBF, and WBO belts. It’s a long-awaited fight and one of the best to be made in all of boxing, so fans will be ready whenever Artur is.

The June 1 main event will now be Deontay Wilder vs Zhilei Zhang, both coming off of losses but also figuring to be such a potentially fascinating style matchup with two big-hitting heavyweights that this doesn’t matter as much as it normally might.

Beterbiev vs Bivol was already not going to be part of the pay-per-view portion of the show, as the fight was to air exclusively on ESPN+ in the United States, with the remainder of the show going through DAZN PPV, an odd set-up that now doesn’t even matter, it’s just a DAZN PPV.

[lazboy]

[joshj909]

I've seen that apparently they will explore Bivol fighting before Beterbiev is back. Realistically, who are the alternatives? The only worthy ones to me are Benavidez if he gets through Gvozdyk unscathed or Buatsi if he's ready to finally step up.

Smith is coming off a loss to Beterbiev. Everyone else just seems way too far off his level, has already lost to Beterbiev/Bivol and would be a pretty unattractive walkover job.

[robbydecker]

This is incredibly Lame.

They Really Should, at least, get a replacement opponent for Bivol.

It's not fair to him(Bivol), to have to suffer more prolonged ring rust, just because Beterbiev is obviously an injury prone Goofball.

[robbydecker]

I've seen that apparently they will explore Bivol fighting before Beterbiev is back. Realistically, who are the alternatives? The only worthy ones to me are Benavidez if he gets through Gvozdyk unscathed or Buatsi if he's ready to finally step up.

Smith is coming off a loss to Beterbiev. Everyone else just seems way too far off his level, has already lost to Beterbiev/Bivol and would be a pretty unattractive walkover job.

"Buatsi" Should definitely be the replacement opponent versus Bivol..!!!

His last bout was 2/3/24. So he'd be fighting 4 months later.

Seems Very Reasonable. Make it happen promoters..!!!

[gregregegg]

Depends if it’s postponed a month, 3? 6? 9?

Card is strong enough to hold up on its own so I don’t see why they would risk Bivol unless it’s a long wait.

[armageto]

New Bivol opponent:

https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/737291

[tiny_acres]

New Bivol opponent:

https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/737291

Not a great replacement but a solid replacement

[joshj909]

New Bivol opponent:

https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/737291

Not a great replacement but a solid replacement

Yeah, given the reasonably short notice you can't argue with it.

[adislav123]

who else would've been a better replacement?

[Gran Hermano]

Depends if it’s postponed a month, 3? 6? 9?

Card is strong enough to hold up on its own so I don’t see why they would risk Bivol unless it’s a long wait.

…damn you fine. Hoping she can sock it to me one more time

[gregregegg]

Depends if it’s postponed a month, 3? 6? 9?

Card is strong enough to hold up on its own so I don’t see why they would risk Bivol unless it’s a long wait.

…damn you fine. Hoping she can sock it to me one more time

It’s early in the morning and I read this reply about 6 times and couldn’t find any context or meaning and was finally just like “this guy is fvcking crazy”

Then as I went to leave the page I go that song come into my head and it allll makes sense now.

[robbydecker]

"Malik Zinad" (22-0) 16 ko's.

Last bout, April 24th, 2024.

It went the 12 round distance.

Fighting for the title(Versus Bivol), 5 weeks later.

WoW. This "Zinad" fellow is a regular throwback to the boxers from the 1940's..!!!

I hope that he's plentifully sufficiently recupperated by June 1st.

If so, then "Zinad" should be good enough to be an interesting and worthwhile opponent.

I'd like to see this bout go at least 8 good busy body type of rounds. 10 would be really good.
If it goes the distance then WoW to "Zinad", win, lose, or draw.

[Gran Hermano]

Depends if it’s postponed a month, 3? 6? 9?

Card is strong enough to hold up on its own so I don’t see why they would risk Bivol unless it’s a long wait.

…damn you fine. Hoping she can sock it to me one more time

It’s early in the morning and I read this reply about 6 times and couldn’t find any context or meaning and was finally just like “this guy is fvcking crazy”

Then as I went to leave the page I go that song come into my head and it allll makes sense now.

Which song?

[handsofstone]

Bivol needs to get Zinad out of there, these UDs are getting out of hand, I still maintain Bivol can dig but going the distance with Arthur is not a good look, just fkn let loose

[Ruthless-RKO]

New date set

[Thomastearns]

Great win for Bivol.
He's a ridiculously difficult opponent to face.

[apollo creed]

Turki Alalshikh announces Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev showdown for October 12th



Hope Artur is gonna recover well. Also Mr Turki plans other big fights in the future. Money Trees!

[Evander]

Bivol looked good.
He could be a lot tougher than I originally thought he was.
Always had him pegged as a 75/25 boxer puncher, he seems like he's got a lot more to offer in the grit and determination category.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Bivol looked good.
He could be a lot tougher than I originally thought he was.
Always had him pegged as a 75/25 boxer puncher, he seems like he's got a lot more to offer in the grit and determination category.

That stoppage on the weekend was long overdue.. but Zinad came to fight

[Evander]

Bivol looked good.
He could be a lot tougher than I originally thought he was.
Always had him pegged as a 75/25 boxer puncher, he seems like he's got a lot more to offer in the grit and determination category.

That stoppage on the weekend was long overdue.. but Zinad came to fight

He did but got outgunned, he kept pawing with that jab too much and ran out of ideas.
He was looking for the home run hit and neglected the boxing side of things.
Bivol showed core boxing ability among other things, he's going to be hard to beat.

[Lenny Cravats]

I voted Beterbiev, but recent results, I've got to go with Bivol. The man looks almost impossible to beat.

[aumonier]

Bivol shouldn't have fought Zinad. Before the fight, he was ranked n°1 in here, after his win he is ranked behind Beterbiev, who haven't fought recently (he is injured). So if the fight between them doesn't happen for whatever reason, Beterbiev has passed over Bivol without beating him.

[margaret thatcher]

Bivol shouldn't have fought Zinad. Before the fight, he was ranked n°1 in here, after his win he is ranked behind Beterbiev, who haven't fought recently (he is injured). So if the fight between them doesn't happen for whatever reason, Beterbiev has passed over Bivol without beating him.

he shouldnt have fought on the card in order to keep his top boxrec rating? i highly doubt he cares much about that, nor should he compared to staying active and being paid

[aumonier]

My comment was more ironic than anything (it was funny to see that after winning another fight, Bivol was ranked under his pre-fight level). I notice Bivol is back at first spot today.