JUST four months after their tense and enthralling first instalment in the Kingdom Arena, undisputed light-heavyweight king Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol will do it again on February 22.
In a show dubbed ‘The Last Crescendo’, the orchestra may have to take it up a notch further should Bivol come away with the victory and set up a trilogy. The 34-year-old’s manager, Vadim Kornilov, expects that outcome and strongly believes his man won the first meeting.
“I’m delighted that His Excellency exists. That he’s changing the game,” lauded Kornilov to Boxing News.
“I’m delighted that when he sees injustice, he says, I thought Bivol won and I want a rematch. I’m delighted that when he says it, he does it because I haven’t seen anything like this before. I didn’t think it was going to happen this quickly. I didn’t think everybody was going to agree.”
Always remaining hopeful that the rematch could get sorted out, Kornilov knows all too well about the intricacies and frustrations of the fight game when it comes to making the big fights happen once, let alone twice.
Given Artur Beterbiev’s long-running track record of boxing once a year, his advanced years and physical wear and tear, the quick turnaround could perhaps favour the Canada-based destroyer rather than Bivol.
“I think it’s good for both guys,” mused Kornilov. “I want to give a lot of credit to Beterbiev, he did really well with Bivol. I mean, it was a very close fight.
“I just want to say Artur is a very good fighter and he proved it so much more in the Bivol fight because he fought one of the best in the world in his division. And he proved that he’s really good.
“And on top of that, he could have just said February is a little early. Let’s wait, we’ll do it in May or June. He wanted to close that chapter out as well because I don’t think he felt good about all the talk. He wanted to put like a decimal point on this fight. I just have all the respect for him in that sense as well.”
Following a respectful first-fight build-up between two classy operators, losing a close battle could lend a sense of injustice to Bivol’s preparation for the return fixture.
While tables won’t be flying or water jugs skimming around press conferences, the extra edge could see Dmitry elevate his game even more in Riyadh. Kornilov doesn’t exactly see it that way.
“Not at all. Dmitry doesn’t even think there’s injustice. He feels like the judges see it the way they see it – whatever. Dmitry has all the respect for the judges and everybody else. I think otherwise sometimes and I say it, but Dmitry didn’t feel like there was any disrespect.”
After 12 hard rounds last year, Beterbiev won by scores of 116-112, 115-113 and a 114-114 drawn scorecard. Everyone, including Kornilov, sees another narrow win in February.
“It’s going to be another close fight, I believe. But obviously, I want Dmitry to knock him out. I just hope this time everybody respects how big of a fight this is and just respects that the decision has to be. The winner has to get the decision that he deserves, even if it’s close.”
