With only a few days till the undisputed mild heavyweight championship between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, coach Marc Ramsey is already excited.
Ramsey, who trains three-belt 175-pound champ Artur Beterbiev, expects a really technical combat towards titlist Dmitry Bivol on Saturday. The 2 dynamos are anticipated to supply the boxing world a mouthwatering and thrilling encounter in a bout that ought to certainly cement the winner’s Corridor of Fame standing.
To Ramsey, the combat guarantees to be a thriller, particularly when each fighters have such completely different kinds within the ring.
“It is a good problem. He is a champion initially,” Ramsey stated of Bivol in an interview with Professional Boxing Followers. “He is excellent at what he does, however it should be technical, mechanical and really sharp. What he does, he does it nicely. However let’s examine if he can do another stuff than what he is doing proper now.
“We’ve got a fighter who can field, and we undoubtedly have a fighter who can combat. Let’s examine if the opposite facet can comply with by means of.”
Ramsey recounted how he met Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) on the World Novice Championship in Chicago in 2007, earlier than bringing the Russian to Montreal for discussions. The Canadian coach revealed that Beterbiev was already a world beginner champion earlier than Ramsey grew to become his cornerman.
“At the moment, it was very exhausting to strategy a Russian fighter for a Canadian promoter, however we had someone that knew either side and at one level we reached one another,” Ramsey stated. “Bodily, he was very gifted already, very sturdy – however I knew that earlier than he got here to my health club the primary time.
“I adopted him rather a lot as an beginner fighter, and he was very nicely educated, technically, from the Russian beginner boxing workforce. And I simply needed to work on a few little particulars simply to guarantee that we’ve the appropriate professional model.”
The duo has gone on to chalk many successes at mild heavyweight, profitable Beterbiev’s first title in 2017 and including additional belts two years later, when he recorded a 10-round stoppage of Oleksandr Gvozdyk. On Saturday, Beterbiev faces the hardest take a look at of his profession towards Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs).
But Beterbiev, even at 39, is not any slouch himself. He stays in distinctive form as a result of a spartan way of life, says Ramsey. Nonetheless, the coach refuted claims that Beterbiev had been knocking out and hospitalizing sparring companions.
“When we’ve sparring companions in Montreal,” Ramsey stated, “we attempt to shield them. We ask them [to spar], like, two or three rounds in a row. We by no means ask them to go to beat 12 rounds or some stuff like that.
“However Artur, after all, he is highly effective, and he’s hurting folks. Proper now, within the health club, we do not see any signal of him slowing down – like, his metabolism and even the ability or stuff like that. You must know that Artur has by no means drunk alcohol in his life. He goes to sleep early each night time and he eats nicely.
“Each single resolution that he has made in his life is in course to his boxing profession, and that is why I imagine at that age, he’s nonetheless correct like that.”
Bernard Neequaye is a sports activities journalist with a specialty in boxing protection. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He might be reached on X (previously Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and thru e-mail at bernardneequaye@gmail.com.
