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Artur Beterbiev’s trainer Marc Ramsey insists his fighter is showing no signs of “slowing down” as they prepare for the biggest fight of his career against fellow world champion Dimitry Bivol.
Beterbiev (20-0-0 20 KO) puts his WBC, WBO, and IBF light-heavyweight world titles on the line against WBA holder Bivol (22-0-0 11 KO) in an undisputed bout on June 1 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In addition to all the titles, both fighters will bring into the ring unbeaten records having swept all before them at 175lbs. It will also see an intriguing clash of styles, pitting the ferocious puncher Beterbiev – who has knocked out all 20 opponents – against the skillful and technically gifted Bivol.
Fight fans have been calling for the two Russian-born fighters to clash for several years, but the money simply wasn’t there. That was until Saudi Arabia got involved in top-level boxing and started investing heavily to host the biggest fights, particularly at heavyweight.
‘Nothing Personal’ For Beterbiev
As such, Beterbiev-Bivol will headline a card preceded by the Matchroom vs Queenbury five-vs-five event, which will involve the likes of Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang, Filip Hrgovic, and Daniel Dubois.
“It’s going to be a very important fight,” Ramsey said in an interview with Boxing Scene. “There is nothing personal here for Artur. He just wants to beat the guy in front of him and at the end of the day he just really wants to win.
“This is his main thing, he is just very competitive. He is always training and in the gym. There hasn’t really been any frustration. We’ve just been waiting and waiting.”
While Beterbiev has proved himself to be one of the most fearsome knockout artists of the modern era, he will be six months shy of his 40th birthday when the bout with Bivol comes around. In a sport as physically brutal as boxing, few fighters can still operate at their highest level at such an age, but Ramsey insisted that Beterbiev is not most fighters.
Bivol Just Another Opponent
“They are hoping that one day Artur is going to get old, but he is just getting better and better. Now the time has come where a promoter has stepped forward. “Artur will never wait for anyone, he will just do the fight we have to do. He doesn’t really follow boxing that much.
“He didn’t know who Callum Smith was before we faced him. He doesn’t really care who he is fighting, he just wants to perform.”
Smith was Beterbiev’s most recent opponent and the Canadian-Russian destroyed the former super-middleweight world champion inside seven rounds. That came after impressive wins over the likes of Anthony Yarde, Joe Smith Jr, and Marcus Browne.
“We see no slowing down in his metabolism in the gym,” Ramsey said. “He is still training with the same good quality work, with the squats, the bench press and the sparring. We just don’t see any slowing down with him! The Callum Smith fight went exactly how we planned.”
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