“People want this fight” - Dmitry Bivol fires back after tense face-off with Artur Beterbiev in Saudi Arabia

Dmitry Bivol is done waiting for a fight with Artur Beterbiev.

The two champions have been in discussions for a fight for years now. As long-awaited title unifications such as Terence Crawford vs. Errol Spence Jr. and Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk have been booked, light-heavyweight is still in disarray.

For his part, Bivol currently holds the WBA (Super) light-heavyweight title and defeated Gilberto Ramierez almost a year ago. Meanwhile, Beterbiev is currently the IBF, WBC, and WBO champion and is set to return to face former champion Callum Smith in January 2024. The two were originally slated to face off in July this year, but the fight was postponed.

Funnily enough, Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev are both in Saudi Arabia this weekend. The two light-heavyweight champions are in attendance to watch Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou, and they both attended the ceremonial dinner last night.

Following the dinner, the two had a face-off to tease a future fight. In an interview with DAZN earlier today, Bivol echoed his previous comments about wanting the bout. He stated:

"I hope [we'll fight in 2024]. I hope we will make this fight, maybe here. I know people want this fight!"

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Artur Beterbiev believes Dmitry Bivol is lying about their potential bout

Artur Beterbiev believes that Dmitry Bivol has no intention of fighting him.

The 38-year-old is coming off a destructive win over Anthony Yarde in January. That was yet another knockout win for Beterbiev, making it his 19th out of 19 fights. Following the victory, he again called for a title unification with Bivol.

However, he was instead ordered by the WBC to defend his gold against Callum Smith. Despite a disappointing delay, Beterbiev doesn't believe that bout is holding him back from facing Bivol. Instead, he believes that it's something much different.

In an interview with Boxing King Media, Artur Beterbiev was asked about Dmitry Bivol's comments about fighting him. There, the light-heavyweight champion stated that he didn't believe his future opponent and that he was lying.

Beterbiev believes that the blame for the last few delays lies on Bivol. In the interview, the Canadian stated:

"He say this two or three years ago, he want to fight me, but he never fight me! [laughs] He's lying. Of course [I want to fight him]. I don't want to fight him [specifically], I mean I only need one thing from him. The belt, that's it."

See his comments in the video below (2:00):