After Bivol’s easy tune up fight on the undercard of Wilder vs. Zhang, it was announced by Turki Alalshikh that the fight between Bivol and Beterbiev has been rescheduled for October 12. Bivol’s defense didn’t look as sharp as it normally does against Zinad, but that might be because he was really trying to win by knockout, which he did for the first time in 6 years. I expect him to have a much different style against Beterbiev. He cannot afford to make mistakes and get caught with the same punches Zinad was landing on him.
Yeah, maybe he really wanted to impressed the crowd by looking for a knockout win and not the usual hard and grind fight and it will go to the judges scorecard. Nevertheless, he has done his part on the bargin so that the Bivol vs Beterbiev fight can still happen and as announced, it will be October 12.
Bivol before this fight last won via knockout 6 years ago, so he wants to look impressive by forcing a knockout even to the point that he gets caught by Zinad's punches, we all know you never look for a knockout you let it come and happen.
Bivol is well-conditioned going to the fight against Beterbiev because Beterbiev will have to get medical clearance before he can start training for the fight.
Or it just shows that Zinad is not on his caliber and level and obviously, this fight is a get busy fight for Bivol while waiting for Beterbiev to recover.
After what happened it is hard for me to judge who is the favorite to win the fight, A guy coming from an impressive win is more confident and well-conditioned than a fighter who just comes from injury and training will be hindered on his movement because you cannot be 100% right away, so we'll see, it's 4 months to go so many things are going to happen and hopefully there will be no more injuries.
If I'm not mistaken, it was almost 50/50 odds for this because this is a close fight and that's why odd makers are also seeing. But we have to consider now that Beterbiev is coming from a injury and so with long layoff it might be Bivol that will be the favorite right now. But yes, 4 months, still plenty of time, because Beterbiev will heal fast and he doesn't need tune up fight and there will be no ring rust for him.