Tim Bradley Believes Dmitry Bivol Has To Be Perfect To Beat Artur Beterbiev

Tim Bradley thinks Dmitry Bivol will have a hard time defeating Artur Beterbiev.

Beterbiev remained undefeated on the weekend with a KO win over Callum Smith, as he impressively ran through the Brit. All the talk in the lead-up was Smith could be the one to catch Beterbiev, but that wasn’t the case which did impress Bradley.

“I thought Smith would have success early on but I knew it was all downhill after four, five, six,” Bradley told Boxing News. “Beterbiev is a slow starter, he likes to warm up into the action. He slowly breaks you down and every blow that he throws is heavy, heavy shots. I knew Smith wouldn’t be able to deal with that.”

With Beterbiev getting the win, it sets up a massive fight against Bivol. It will be a highly-anticipated matchup, and after the fight on Saturday, Bradley says Bivol needs to be perfect to win.

“That’s the fight that everybody wants to see. I’ve always favored Bivol but Bivol has to fight the perfect fight in order to beat Bivol,” Bradley said.

As of right now, no date has been made for Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol, but all signs point to that fight being made.

Artur Beterbiev (20-0) is coming off the TKO win over Callum Smith on Saturday to defend his WBC, IBF, and WBO light heavyweight titles. He also holds notable wins over Anthony Yarde, Joe Smith Jr., and Marcus Browne among others.

Dmitry Bivol (22-0) is coming off a decision win over Lyndon Arthur to retain his WBA light heavyweight title and win the IBO light heavyweight title. In his career, he also holds notable wins over Canelo Alvarez, Jean Pascal, Joe Smith Jr., and Gilberto Ramirez among others.

Who do you think would win, Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol?