Terence Crawford is leaning towards Dmitry Bivol to overcome Artur Beterbiev in their highly-anticipated undisputed light heavyweight title fight.
Beterbiev and Bivol will finally decide the premier light heavyweight when they clash in Riyadh next Saturday night, with the victor also likely to rival Crawford as the number one pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
WBA and IBO titlist, Bivol heads into next week’s showdown, undefeated in 23 bouts, whilst his Russian counterpart, who holds the WBC, WBO and IBF crowns, has won all of his 20 fights by knockout.
Four-weight world champion, Crawford believes that Bivol is capable of nullifying his rival’s fearsome punching power using his masterful skillset.
“I think the best man’s gonna win,” the 37-year-old told Bernie Tha Boxer.
“The one that executes their game plan the best will win in that fight.
“If I had to pick one I’d pick Bivol because of his boxing skills, his movement, and just his will to keep a fighter at the distance that he needs.
“I think that’s one thing that’s gonna carry him to victory.
“Beterbiev, he’s strong, he gonna be coming to fight, but I think Bivol’s jab is gonna stop all that forcefully coming straight forward.”
The 33-year-old announced his credentials to a wider audience in May 2022 when he dominated Canelo Alvarez to retain his WBA light heavyweight world title in Las Vegas.
Crawford has been vocal in his desire to face Canelo, who retained his unified super middleweight titles with a unanimous decision victory over Edgar Berlanga last month.
Alvarez has not shown much interest in facing ‘Bud’, feeling he’d receive little credit for beating a man that would have to come up two weight classes from super welterweight, where he holds the WBA title as a result of his win over Israil Madrimov in August.
The Omaha native also secured the WBO interim crown with victory over Madrimov and is currently in negotiations to face unified WBO and WBC titlist, Sebastian Fundora, according to the WBO, who installed Crawford as their mandatory challenger.
“That’s a fight on the table,” he said on a fight with Fundora.
“If Fundora’s licking his chops over my performance vs Israil Madrimov, then I should be licking my chops because Madrimov knocked Fundora out in sparring.
“That’s what I heard.”
