{"id":313195,"date":"2025-12-13T02:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T02:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/313195\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T02:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T02:57:09","slug":"beterbiev-says-bivol-rejected-trilogy-offer-open-to-fighting-benavidez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/313195\/","title":{"rendered":"Beterbiev says Bivol rejected trilogy offer, open to fighting Benavidez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev<\/a> offered updates on Thursday surrounding the trilogy bout he\u2019s been seeking against Dmitry Bivol<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Beterbiev said Bivol rejected a significant offer to stage their third fight in Russia, but did not clarify exactly when the offer was declined. Beterbiev added that he was not aware of the amount of the offer, but said “it’s not less than our first two fights” which were staged by Riyadh Season. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am now more focused on the trilogy,\u201d Beterbiev told reporters while in attendance at the IBA Men\u2019s World Boxing Championships in Dubai. \u201cOur fight will be most interesting in Moscow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) beat Bivol in October 2024 by majority decision, and Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) won the February rematch<\/a> by unanimous decision.
Beterbiev, who turns 41 in January, has been stuck on the sidelines while waiting for Bivol to make the next move. In July, Beterbiev bashed him for prolonging negotiations<\/a>, stating that his rival was intentionally aging him. <\/p>\n

By August, Bivol announced he had back surgery and would be unavailable to fight until the first quarter of 2026. Prior to tending to his ailments, Bivol appeared gung-ho to fight Beterbiev. He vacated his WBC title in April and opted not to face mandatory challenger David Benavidez as unfinished business with Beterbiev lingered. <\/p>\n

Beterbiev was supposed to take a stay-busy fight in November against Deon Nicholson on the Ring IV: Night of Champions card in Saudi Arabia headlined by Benavidez\u2019s knock out of Anthony Yarde. The matchup, however, was scrapped several weeks in advance.<\/p>\n

Benavidez carries the WBC light heavyweight title Beterbiev once owned, and he\u2019ll begin to campaign as a cruiserweight when he takes on WBA and WBO champion Gilberto Ramirez on May 2.<\/a> Benavidez has stated that he\u2019ll be ready to return to 175 pounds for the right fights against Beterbiev and Bivol. <\/p>\n

\u201cI watched some highlights. [Benavidez] did a good job [stopping Yarde in seven rounds],\u201d said Beterbiev. \u201cOf course I want to fight with Benavidez. It’s very important for me to win my titles back. [Cruiserweight is also] interesting.\u201d <\/p>\n

The expanded Killer B\u2019s fight triangle, with Benavidez joining his Russian counterparts, features three of The Ring\u2019s top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport.<\/p>\n

Bivol is ranked No. 5 in the Ring’s pound-for-pound list, followed by Beterbiev at No. 6 and Benavidez ninth.<\/p>\n

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring\u2019s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev offered updates on Thursday surrounding the trilogy bout he\u2019s been seeking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":{"0":"post-313195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-schedule","18":"tag-boxing-videos","19":"tag-boxing-results","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-unitedkingdom","37":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}