By Keith Idec
Eddie Hearn couldn’t help himself Thursday night.
A day after calling Artur Beterbiev arrogant, Dmitry Bivol’s promoter playfully took another shot at the IBF/WBC/WBO light-heavyweight champion for what Hearn perceives as the unbeaten Russian’s refusal to properly push one of the most meaningful fights that could’ve been arranged in boxing. Though English isn’t his first language, Beterbiev seems strategically tight-lipped during interviews and rarely offers much insight into his life away from the ring.
Beterbiev and the comparably boring Bivol – while elite-level champions and evenly matched – have made Hearn and rival British promoter Frank Warren more than earn every bit of their fees for promoting a long-awaited showdown that will determine the sport’s first fully unified light-heavyweight champion of the four-belt era.
Beterbiev predictably didn’t talk trash to Bivol during their final press conference. He did take exception to moderator Dev Sahni half-heartedly asking the knockout artist if he wanted to fight Hearn as well as Bivol because the Matchroom Boxing chairman called him “arrogant.”
“What you say?” Beterbiev asked Sahni. “You want to make fight with [me and] Eddie? Why you do that? It really can’t be. I can’t do something, you know? But why you talk like this?”
A smiling Hearn interjected.
“Don’t worry about me,” Hearn told Beterbiev. “You have to get through [Bivol] first. When he’s finished with you, it’ll be easier for me.”
When Beterbiev questioned his conditioning, Hearn replied, “Terrible. But I think you need to switch on for this guy.”
An annoyed Beterbiev retorted, “You talk a lot, I know,” to which Hearn deadpanned, “It’s my job. You should try it.”
The 39-year-old Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) and the 33-year-old Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) will both need to be switched on for what figures to be an extremely competitive clash that either fighter could win. Most sportsbooks list Bivol as a slight favorite to win a 12-round fight that will headline a DAZN Pay-Per-View card in the UK (7 p.m. GMT; £19.99) and an ESPN+ stream in the United States (no charge beyond the cost of a monthly subscription).
Though Beterbiev was born and raised in Russia and Bivol moved to Russia from Kyrgyzstan as a child, their fight will take place at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia because their approximate $10 million purses have been fully funded by the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia. Bivol previously expressed reluctance to battle Beterbiev in Quebec, Canada – where Beterbiev resides, trains and has become a fan favorite over the past decade – because Bivol believed it would put him at a disadvantage.
Now that Saudi Arabia’s GEA has finally ensured that they’ll fight, Hearn lamented that Bivol’s opponent didn’t do more to sell it.
“I think he is arrogant,” Hearn repeated during the press conference. “I think all fighters are arrogant. I think you have to be arrogant. But it was more of a frustration to make sure the world is aware of what this fight is and what it means. Because as stone cold as Artur Beterbiev is and as stone cold as Dmitry Bivol is, there’s still that young boy that found boxing, that changed their life through boxing, that had a dream to win every belt in the sport.
“And sometimes one-word answers don’t always tell me the pure emotion and meaning of what victory would do for them on Saturday night. Artur Beterbiev is one of the greatest fighters of our generation. And the man to my right [Bivol] is one of the purest boxers I’ve ever seen.”