Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol will fight on Saturday for the chance to become the first ever undisputed light heavyweight champion in the four-belt era. The last time the division had a three-belt undisputed champion was in 2000 (Roy Jones Jr.). The fight at Kingdom Arena, in Riyadh, Saudi will be streamed on ESPN+ (6 p.m. ET).
Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs), a two-time Olympian from Russia, is boxing’s only champion with a 100% KO ratio, is the WBC, WBO and IBF world champion He has held at least one of the belts since Nov. 11, 2017 — an almost seven-year reign as a champ. This will be Beterbiev’s ninth defense of the IBF title, sixth defense of the WBC title and third of the WBO title.
“I have to be excited [for this fight],” Beterbiev said during an episode of the ESPN+ show “Undisputed.” “I’m not emotional front of people, but of course I’m exciting. It’s my goal to be [undisputed] champion.”
Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs), the No. 1-ranked light heavyweight boxer by ESPN, was the WBA interim light heavyweight champ until he was elevated to full champion in 2017. He has made 12 defenses on the belt, including a unanimous-decision victory over Canelo Alvarez in May 2022. Bivol is 4-0 in fights against current or former champions.
“When I signed the contract, I had this in my mind,” Bivol said during an episode of the ESPN+ show “Undisputed.” “Why I’m signing contract, what I want from this professional career. Do I want to just earn money to get some couple fights? No Now what the reason I will fight? What is the maximum? Maximum is to collect all belts. This is my maximum.”
While Bivol is a slight favorite to win (-135 per ESPN BET), let’s look at the title fight by the numbers, with data from ESPN Stats & Information and CompuBox.
The question of who the world’s best light heavyweight is will be decided Saturday when Beterbiev takes on Bivol. The winner will become only the 12th undisputed champion in boxing’s four-belt era.
21: Beterbiev and Bivol combined number of title fights.
41.9: Percentage of power punches landed by Bivol — 7.8 per round.
13: Percentage of total punches landed on Bivol by his opponents, lowest among all fighters.
3: Number of male Russian-born boxers to hold three world titles at a time (Beterbiev, Kostya Tszyu and Sergey Kovalev).
26: Percentage of Beterbiev’s thrown combinations of four or five-plus punches — 16.3% of which are five-plus punches.
31.8: Percentage of Beterbiev total landed punches per round — 19.4 of 61.1.
30.8: Percentage of Beterbiev opponents landed power punches — 6.6 per round.
65.5: Percentage of Bivol’s thrown jabs — highest ratio of jabs to power punches thrown in boxing.
Bivol has proven to be one of the best well-rounded boxers active today. He has the best jab in the business (lands 8.8 per round) and combines that with fantastic defense. Opponents land just 13% of punches against Bivol (fewest in boxing) and his plus/minus sits at +17.8, which is the third best in boxing behind Shakur Stevenson and Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
Beterbiev has also an excellent jab (6.4 landed per round) and we know about his power and combination punching. In fact, 26% of Beterbiev’s thrown combinations are 4 and 5+ punches in duration, 16.3% of which are 5+ punches.
After a distinguished amateur career, Beterbiev turned pro late when he moved to Montreal at the age of 28. He enters the fight against Bivol at 39 years old, making him the second oldest widely recognized current male champion.
Beterbiev is a two-time Olympian who comes into the fight with a perfect KO percentage in 20 fights, the only current world champion to win all of his career fights by stoppage.