Over a year has passed since Artur Beterbiev recorded his first professional defeat in a rematch with Dmitry Bivol. Both men have remained inactive since.
Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) relinquished his undisputed light heavyweight title by majority decision to his Russian rival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The defeat followed a result in the opposite direction five months earlier in the Saudi capital.
Boxing fans had eagerly anticipated a clash between the two best light heavyweights in the world for many years, but now they must wait some more time for the trilogy. Multiple reports suggest that Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) is close to negotiating a defense against his IBF mandatory challenger, Michael Eifert.
“To be honest, Bivol has done everything possible to slow down negotiations with us,” Beterbiev’s trainer, Marc Ramsay, said in an exclusive interview with Boxing Social. “We were ready for that fight five years ago, and we had to wait and wait. What he’s doing right now is waiting again. We could have done a third fight maybe two or three months after we did the second one. We gave him a rematch right away. Bivol’s team has been doing this for a long time and wasting time. We understand what they are doing.
“We did have to deal with a little bit of injury [following the defeat to Bivol]. He needed a little bit of medical support, and he took a little bit of time to take care of the injury. But he’s good! He’s been back in the gym for a long time. Right now he is training every day. At the moment it is Ramadan, so he has slowed down his training a little bit until the middle of March, but he’ll be ready to fight soon.”
Time is not on the side of the fearsome knockout artist, who turned 41 years old last month — six years older than Bivol.
“He takes care of himself,” Ramsay responded when asked whether Beterbiev is too old to maintain his earlier form. “He’s never drank in his life. He sleeps well, he drinks well, he’s doing everything he has to do to preserve his peak. Of course, you can’t beat time — nobody can do that. He really does everything he can to maintain the quality he has. As a fighter, of course your body will change a little bit as you get older, your metabolism slows down a little bit, but you do get a little trickier and more experienced. It’s a question of balance.”