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Beterbiev to win via KO/TKO

Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol

15/8

Beterbiev to win in rounds 7-12

Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol

3/1

Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol Prediction & Preview

WBC, WBO, IBF titlist Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20KO) and WBA and IBO beltholder Dmitry Bivol (23-0, 12KO) finally clash in Saudi Arabia this Saturday, October 12, for all the marbles after the fight was delayed from June.

The undefeated, unified world champions will collide in the Kingdom to crown the first undisputed light-heavyweight champion in a four-belt era.

But what’s so great about this contest, aside from the prestige and legacy at stake, is their clash of styles – a powerful puncher against an out-boxer who is a master of range.

As amateurs, Beterbiev clocked up a record of 295-5 and Bivol’s boasts 268-15, so between them they registered 563 victories in a vest and now they are unbeaten in 43 combined fights as pros. The numbers are quite astonishing.

Trained by Marc Ramsay in Canada, Beterbiev is the only active world champion with a 100 per cent KO ratio, a testament to the insane power he possesses, but also due to the relentless aggression, high pace and intensity he brings. 

The 39-year-old Russian is able to knock opponents out with just a single jab. His power is effortless and inescapable, he doesn’t need to load up on his punches, as the strength is present in every single shot he throws. You won’t see him leaning to one side to generate torque from his hips and legs, instead he has solid weight in everything he throws and it wears opponents down steadily.

In his last fight with Callum Smith, Beterbiev decided to jump on his opponent from the first seconds of the fight and never relented for a single moment after. Smith was made to look like a moderate opponent, even though he was a former world champion at super-middleweight who had recently gone 12-rounds with Canelo. But in this contest, the Liverpudlian’s head was rocked violently and constantly for the seven rounds it lasted.

In their 2023 fight, Anthony Yarde started well with his energy, speed and movement, but it was always just a matter of time before Beterbiev would get to him, only taking a short while to start imposing himself fully in the fight, and, from there, the writing was on the wall.

Whenever Yarde did land a substantial shot, AB would take a little walk for a few seconds to clear his head then get back to business again, eventually breaking the Brit down until the eighth-round submission.

Despite his undeniable toughness and fearsome reputation, Beterbiev has been knocked down twice in his career. 

Firstly, in his seventh contest with Jeff Page Jr in 2014. At that early stage of his pro career, his guard was hanging lower down by his chest, but it’s since been brought up higher and tightened up with experience. Page Jr managed to score the knockdown with a straight right, but it was followed by a push with his left arm that unbalanced Beterbiev. It awoke a sleeping giant and the angry Russian got revenge in the second round with a single overhand right to drop his man, then finished him off moments later.

When he fought Callum Johnson in 2018, he floored the Brit in first round, but then he was hurt and decked himself by a big left hook in the second, however a huge right hook finished the Brit off in the fourth.

So, the man with such formidable punching power is not invincible himself.

Trained by Gennady Mashianov ever since the amateurs, Bivol shocked the world when he defeated pound-for-pound superstar Canelo Alvarez in 2022.

Bivol’s superior reach and size allowed him to keep Canelo at a distance that suited his range of fighting. He jabbed at Canelo constantly, waving his lead hand like a wand in his opponent’s face to distract and keep him off his rhythm, then reeled off straight shots in combinations, all the while using his feet to back up to maintain the distance and tucking up behind a tight, high guard to block the Mexican’s hooks from around the side.

Whenever Bivol was backed up to the ropes, he would absorb the attack on his gloves, then pivot away instantly. Canelo was hugely frustrated towards the end of the contest, while Bivol was confidently still throwing excessively with energy to spare, and won the fight unanimously at 115-113 x3.

In his last fight, in June, Bivol scored his first stoppage win in six years, having gone the full 12-round distance in his last nine fights before it. He was able to floor Malik Zinad in the first round, then finish him off in the sixth, however, the Libyan was an overmatched, last-minute opponent.

Bivol is enjoying his prime right now, aged 33, but Beterbiev, at the advanced age of 39, has been increasingly blighted with injuries during recent times, including jaw surgery last year and a knee injury earlier this year.

It really is a 50-50 fight between instinct vs intelligence, power vs skill, aggression vs patience… making it almost impossible to predict, which is why these two unbeaten world champions are equally split at the bookies.

Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol Prediction

Not only is this the most exciting fight of the year, but the most interesting too. Their opposing styles and strengths just adds so much intrigue.

Bivol is a master of range, arguably the best in the world right now, but despite all the skills and strengths he possesses, I don’t think a monster like Beterbiev can’t be kept away for the full 12 rounds by anyone. One opponent made it to the 12th round once, but that was way back in 2017.

To simplify matters, Beterbiev is expected by many to win by KO, like he has done in every single professional fight so far. Bivol has been hurt – albeit rarely – by lesser punchers, so this is a highly possible outcome.

Bivol’s best chance of winning is expected to be on points, but he also has a chance of scoring knockdowns himself, I believe, even though he is not known for his power. He throws high volumes of jabs and straight shots, so he could catch AB with plenty of those as he comes forward, plus if he adds that whipping left hook in on the end of his one-twos, then there’s a solid chance he could knock his man down, who has been decked twice before.

However, even if I think Bivol scoring a knockdown is possible, I don’t think a stoppage is as likely. Beterbiev took the best of what Oleksandr Gvozdyk could offer and stood strong, eventually destroying his opponent’s soul and willpower, which he does to everyone.

Because of his proficiency at knocking people out, Artur’s intelligence and skill can be overlooked. His aggression is calculated and skilled, he never smothers his work, always able to maintain the perfect gap for his offensive work, and his punch accuracy is impeccable, but so too is Bivol’s.

I was at Beterbiev’s fight against Yarde and every shot that landed drew gasps from the crowd because they sounded so brutal and painful.

I think Beterbiev is going to have a lot of hard work to do on the night to get close to Bivol, whose jabs and movements should keep him at bay for a long while, but when he does get into the range where he can work best, I can see him landed his shots despite how tight Bivol’s guard will be, but that’s if he lingers or gets trapped. He is more often going to pivot away and frustrate AB like he did to Canelo.

Five of Beterbiev’s last six KOs have all come in the second half of the contests, it was only the mistaken tactics of Joe Smith Jr to fight fire with fire that saw him get knocked out quickly in two rounds. Over the course of his career, he averages a knockout every 4-5 rounds, but in recent results, it’s 8-9. But Bivol will be his hardest, toughest, cleverest foe to date, so it’s highly likely for this fight to reach the championship rounds.

I’m picking heavier-handed Beterbiev to win by KO in rounds 7-12.

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Free Boxing Betting Tips

Tim Rickson is the WhichBookie boxing analyst who joined the team midway through 2022 and will be providing boxing betting tips throughout the year for all of the big fights.

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Yes. All tips remain live here on WhichBookie. You can view all past boxing tips here on this page.

Which Bookie Should I Place The Tips With?

If you’d like to back any of the selections, we recommend a bookmaker to do so with. These are usually the bookies offering the best odds on the selection at the time of posting the tip but it may be worth checking other bookies in case the odds have changed. There may also be betting offers associated with the tip that are only available with specific bookmakers that are worth taking into consideration.

What Stakes Should I Use?

We never recommend an actual stake to use for each bet as this will vary between people depending on the size of their betting bank. Never bet more than you can afford to lose and always stick to your staking plan.

How Regularly Are Boxing Tips Published?

WhichBookie boxing analyst Tim Rickson will publish tips whenever he finds value in a bet. If there is a big fight coming up, it’s likely that he will cover it but generally, they’ll be posted whenever a good bet comes about.

Can You Watch Boxing Online?

Many of the big boxing matches are only available via Pay Per View. However, you may be able to find streams of some of the less-popular fights via the Bet365 Live Streaming service. Bet365 provides over 100,000 live streams of sporting events every year and is regarded as one of the best services for streaming sports online without charge.

How To Bet On Boxing

There are several options when it comes to betting on boxing, and the more you know, the better your chances of success. We will now go into more detail about some of the different betting markets that you will find, and discuss a few potential strategies you could use.

Outright / To Win Fight

As with most sports, the outright market is probably the simplest, because you’re just betting on who will win the fight. There are no other criteria to consider, other than the fact that with many of the best bookies for boxing, you can also bet on the draw. However, draws in boxing are very rare and not many people tend to back this outcome.

Bear in mind that in many fights, one boxer tends to be a heavy favourite and it’s usually quite easy to pick the winner. There don’t tend to be that many shock results. Therefore, the odds on the favourite are often very low, even if you use the bookie with the best odds as described earlier in the article.

If you’re happy betting at short odds, you can certainly get a good success rate simply by backing short price favourites in boxing. But many people prefer to look for bigger wins. So you may sometimes need to look at some of the other markets to get a better return on your bet.

Fight Outcome / Method of Victory

This market lets you choose not only who will win the fight, but how they will win. Different methods of victory are usually grouped as follows:

• By KO (knockout), TKO (tecnhical knockout) or DQ (opponent disqualified).
• By Decision (on points) or Technical Decision.

So because there are more possible outcomes in this market, the odds are higher than just the outright win market.

Round Betting

The Round Betting market offers the opportunity to get the highest odds. Here you can bet on which fighter will win, and which round he/she will win in.

Options to bet on a fighter to win on points, or to bet on the draw, are both also included in this market. In a 12 round bout, that gives 27 different possible outcomes. Therefore, the odds on each one are naturally going to be much higher. Think of it as the equivalent of the correct score market in football betting.

So the round betting market offers the biggest potential wins when betting on boxing. But of course, it’s harder to predict the outcome. You do have the option to split your stake to cover more than one outcome though. So if you felt that a fighter would win within the first 3 rounds, you could split your stake to back him to win in round 1, round 2 and round 3. The odds would mean you’d get a good profit if any of those outcomes happened.

To Go The Distance

This is a simple market in which you decide whether the fight will last all 12 rounds or not. Therefore there are only two outcomes to bet on, Yes or No.

It’s possible to get a decent success rate when betting on this market. Check the stats and the history of each boxer and ask yourself the following:

• Are the fighters evenly matched?
• Do they have a reputation for durability and rarely having been stopped in the past?
• If there is a favourite, is he/she an aggressive boxer or does he/she prefer to wear their opponent down?
• How many of their previous fights have gone the distance?

The answers to these key questions should give you a good idea of whether the fight is likely to go the distance or not. There can still be surprises, but you’ll certainly win more bets than you lose.

Total Rounds Over/Under

This market allows you to bet on the total number of rounds the fight will last for. The advantage here is that you do not need to specify who will win, just how long it will last.

For example, let’s consider a market of Over/Under 3.5 Rounds. There are only two options to bet on, either Over 3.5 Rounds or Under 3.5 Rounds. Therefore, you would approach the market as follows:

• If you think the fight will last for 3 rounds or less, you would bet on Under.
• If you think it will last for 4 rounds or more, you would be on Over.

You will find that similar markets are available for Over/under 4.5, Over/Under 5.5, Over/Under 6.5 etc.

Where To Get The Best Odds On Boxing

As any professional punter will tell you, the key to making a profit is not knowing who will win every time. Because obviously, that is not possible. The real trick is making sure that when you do win, you get the best possible odds on your bet.

We studied the odds for outright bets on every professional boxing match over a period of three months. We wanted to find the best bookies for boxing odds over a prolonged period of time.

As you would expect, Betfair and Bet365 are better than most of the competition. But the results showed that Betfred have the highest odds overall and came out well in some of the other markets like round betting.

Betfred were consistently best or equal best odds on nearly every outright market we recorded. They blew some of the other online bookies away in terms of the value they offered on boxing, and their user ratings are good too. So if you don’t have an account with them yet, we would definitely recommend joining.

Best Bookies For Boxing
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