Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol have offered their thoughts on the upcoming historic battle between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
Beterbiev remains as the only reigning world champion with a 100% knockout ratio, stopping all 20 of his professional opponents to date and becoming the WBC, WBO & IBF champion as a result.
Despite never facing Usyk in the pro ranks, the Canadian-Russian has arguably had the most fearsome rivalry with the unified heavyweight champion of any fighter, losing an amateur trilogy 2-1 but being just one of two men to drop Usyk in an official contest, with a vicious body shot.
As a result of this knockdown, fans have always felt as though Usyk’s body could be his kryptonite and suspicions were further raised when Daniel Dubois wounded the champion last August, leaving Usyk floored for almost four minutes with a shot that was controversially deemed as a low blow.
Yet, in an interview with Queensberry, Beterbiev declared that Fury should not exclusively target Usyk’s body, regardless of his belief that this is a weak area for his amateur foe.
“Yeah, I think [Usyk is weak to the body], yes.
“Not that [Fury should target Usyk’s body], but sometimes he will need to punch there too.”
Meanwhile, Bivol is of a contrasting style to his fellow 175lb champion, often being criticised for not pushing for knockouts but establishing himself as one of the sport’s purest technicians with an upset win over pound-for-pound great in 2022.
The WBA light-heavyweight champion has won his last nine bouts by unanimous-decision and understandably appreciated and favoured the skills of Usyk, rather than the physical advantages and possible knockout power of ‘The Gypsy King’.
“I like this fight, I like this challenge between Usyk and Fury, it’s a really good fight for boxing fans. I think that Usyk really is a good fighter and that he will make problems for Fury, but we will see.”
Fury-Usyk will take place on May 18th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the Kingdom Arena, live on DAZN pay-per-view, where a first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000 will be confirmed.
Two weeks later, at the same arena, Beterbiev and Bivol were set to meet, but an injury to Beterbiev has forced the bout to be postponed, with it now targeted for later in the year.
Bivol will remain on the event, now taking on Malik Zinad, while the ‘Matchroom versus Queensberry; Five versus Five’ card will also go ahead.
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