After Artur Beterbiev pulled out of his undisputed light heavyweight clash with Dmitry Bivol due to injury, a new fighter stepped in to face Bivol.
Bivol is the WBA light heavyweight champion, and he will take on undefeated Libyan, Malik Zinad.
The pair fight on the same night as the Matchroom vs. Queensberry event, live on DAZN.
Here's everything you need to know ahead of Bivol vs. Zinad.
Date: Saturday, June 1
Time: At 7 p.m. UK / 2 p.m. ET
Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The fighters are expected to ringwalk at around 8:00 PM UTC at Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which is 4:00 PM EST or 1:00 PM PST on the West Coast of America, or 9:00 PM BST in the UK.
“They asked me about Zinad. He just won a fight and became second in the IBF. They said, ‘Do you want to fight with him?’ ‘If possible to make this fight, I will be happy,'” said Dmitry Bivol to Queensberry about how Malik Zinad was picked as the replacement after Artur Beterbiev suffered a knee injury. “We didn’t have a lot of options.
They asked about Zinad, and I said, ‘I’m ready.'” It would be interesting to know who else was offered to Bivol as a replacement because there are a lot of contenders that would jump at the chance to fight him if they were offered nice paydays to fight on Saturday’s 5 vs 5 card in Saudi Arabia.
“I still believe it’ll happen [fight against Beterbiev] because he will recover, and he wants this fight. He has a similar mind like mine. He wants to reach the maximum,” said Bivol. “I hope I will do everything well on Saturday night, and then I can move forward to this fight.” The Bivol vs. Beterbiev fight is expected to take place in either late this year or in the first quarter of 2025. It’ll depend on how well Beterbiev rehabs his knee.
“I have to respect him, and I have to be focused,” said Bivol about Zinad. “Yeah, he got his chance, and I’m sure he will try to do his best. I’m a professional athlete, a champion of the world. I have to prove it again.
“Before I had a fight against Lyndon Arthur, he was one of the options. I saw some of his fights. His style is similar to Lyndon Arthur’s. He uses his jab a lot, and he’s good with his right-hand counter punch, and he’s throwing long.” Zinad appears to have some power, and that at least gives him a chance of winning if he can hurt Bivol with one of his shots. Bivol got a little overconfident against Arthur and was shaken up by a right hand from him in the eighth.
“That’s why they call it professional boxer. If you’re a professional, you have to try to switch [opponents if someone is injured] from one situation to another,” said Bivol. “You have to change sometimes in the ring. I have enough time to change my sparring partners and change my target.
“Maybe he said it, and he’s confident, but I’m confident also,” said Bivol about Zinad saying he’s going to cause an earthquake inside the ring on Saturday. “I have to be better. I have to beat him as much as I can,” said Bivol.
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