Craig Richards feels that Artur Beterbiev disguising his power was important to his victory over Dmitry Bivol on Saturday night. Lightweight contender Richards helped 175 lb unified champion Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) prepare for the fight against WBA champion Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) by sparring.
Richards says Beterbiev uses several weaker “throw” shots to keep his opponents tense, and then he’ll charge in with one of his heavy punches. Because of Beterbiev’s power, his opponents cannot relax, and Richard noticed that this is what happened with Bivol. He was not relaxed, and he never knew when Beterbiev would throw one of his power shots.
In the following rounds, from 9 to 12, Beterbiev did not abandon his pressure and brought Bivol because he was forced to move without stopping. He couldn’t stand in front of Beterbiev because he was throwing too many punches.
Although Bivol was blocking many of the shots, the concussive force from the shots came through his gloves into his head. Bivol looked half-stunned from rounds 7-12 and was ineffective on the other hand throwing weak holding shots. All the hardest shots were landed by Beterbiev.
“Bivol worked well behind his jab in the first two or three rounds, and he was very successful. When he stopped doing that and started moving a lot and allowed Beterbiev to close the distance on him, Beterbiev it allowed me to intimidate him a little bit and have more success,” Craig Richards told secondsoutDiscussing his thoughts on Saturday night’s clash between lightweight champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
“He’s very smart in that some of his shots, he may not have much behind them, but when you know he can punch, he’ll keep somebody tight,” Richards said of Beterbiev. “So, he might not throw a heavy punch, but you don’t know when it’s coming. You know he can punch, so he automatically (tense up) for everything he throws. He can manipulate rounds by throwing punches.
“I think that if Bivol could relax more in front of him and not fall for some of those tricks, I thought he would have a lot of success. I felt that he did that in some rounds. I was sliding and staying in front of him, working out of the jab, but Beterbiev is very smart.
“He kept throwing that jab, and then he threw a hard punch. Bivol was like, ‘Oh no, now I don’t know when the hard punches are coming.’ So, he (Beterbiev) mixes his power pretty well . He puts up with the pressure, and when he puts it on, he puts it on,” Richards said of Beterbiev.
