When Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol finally collide in Riyadh on Saturday night there will likely be more punches thrown in the opening round than words exchanged in what has been an intense and frosty prelude.
These are two stoic individuals who express themselves with their fists – products of a Russian boxing system where talk is not only cheap, but a sign of weakness.
Bivol is the more cultured, Beterbiev the more ruthless. A stylist who took the Soviet blueprint and sprinkled it with some 'Sugar' Ray Leonard and Roy Jones Jr versus a clinical destroyer, who says he doesn't watch boxing at all, he just fights.
Two introverts who admit to being uncomfortable with the magnitude of an event their talent commands, but are virtually guaranteed to produce a contest worthy of its billing as the best fight in all of boxing.
“They have this very Russian attitude and it explains the mentality they both have,” Pavel Toropov, a Russian boxing expert and writer, told The National.
“It’s a code of conduct – otvechat' za slova – where you have to answer or back up what you say. So, a real man is very sparing in what he says and can back everything up – you do not run your mouth.
“It’s a very macho way of being and explains why they don't trash talk. Beterbiev takes it to an extreme. He's actually quite an eloquent speaker in Russian when he opens up to someone he trusts, but he wants absolutely nothing to do with the razzmatazz of boxing.
"He sees himself as a pure warrior. He hates the press conferences and the face-to-face and all of that. He wants to get in the ring, destroy people, and leave.
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Dmitry Bivol trains during the media workout as part of the Riyadh Season - IV Crown Showdown. Getty Images -
Artur Beterbiev does press-ups on his knuckles during the media workout. Getty Images -
Dmitry Bivol during the grand arrivals as part of the Riyadh Season - IV Crown Showdown at The Venue ahead of his undisputed light-heavyweight title fight against Artur Beterbiev. Getty Images -
Artur Beterbiev sdalutes the crowd during the grand arrivals as part of the Riyadh Season - IV Crown Showdown. Getty Images -
Artur Beterbiev poses for a photo at a portrait session. Getty Images -
Dmitry Bivol poses for a photo at a portrait session. Getty Images -
Cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia at the grand arrivals in Riyadh. Getty Images -
Chris Eubank Jr takes the stage during the grand arrivals. Getty Images -
Heavyweight Frazer Clarke who takes on British rival Fabio Wardley. Getty Images -
Australia's Skye Nicolson faces Raven Chapman in the first women's world title fight to be staged in Saudi Arabia. Getty Images -
Saudi fighter Mohammed Alakel features on the undercard. Getty Images -
British Olympian Ben Whittaker will take part in a light-heavyweight bout. Getty Images
"Bivol also speaks very well in Russian, a very clever guy, but he's extremely respectful in the sense that he's diplomatic and doesn't want to offend anyone."
Despite a lack of hype from the combatants, it’s a contest where the quality speaks for itself.
An era-defining bout between two of the finest light-heavyweights of modern times that will headline a spectacular show to mark the start of Riyadh Season in the Saudi capital.
Beterbiev is a historically devastating puncher. He is 20 fights unbeaten, all won by knockout. Bivol is perfect in 23 bouts, including a signature victory over Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. All four major belts are on the line.
It’s the pinnacle for two fighters – formerly teammates on the Russian national amateur squad – whose stated aim is to fight the best and beat the best.
Outwardly, at least, it's also a clash between two very different men.
The Dagestan-born Chechen Beterbiev is a devout Muslim who enjoys the anonymity of his adopted Montreal. The only insights offered by the 39-year-old's social media accounts are of his spartan training methods and friendship with the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. He has no entrance music. No nickname.
Bivol, originally from Kyrgyzstan, has spent much of his life in Saint Petersburg, the home of Russian arts. He ring walks to Blood Type, an anti-war song by Kino, whose late singer Viktor Tsoi, like Bivol, was half Korean. His ex-wife is an influencer and his Instagram account shows him touring the Hermitage Museum for "cultural training" with his sons.
Yet despite their obvious differences, the parallels also run deep. Beterbiev and Bivol share more than just dreams of glory in Riyadh and a distaste for the limelight.
Both were born into hardship on the fringes of a crumbling Soviet Union and have boxing to thank for allowing them and their families to escape it.
“To me they are actually very similar,” explained Toropov. “There are a lot of similarities that are hidden by their personalities. Both have this family stability and appreciation that it made them who they are. It has kept them grounded. They also both have this incredible work ethic which is a result of coming from difficult hard-working backgrounds and it has propelled them to where they are.
“They are both very Soviet in their backgrounds as well because Bivol is half Moldovan, half Soviet-Korean, and from Kyrgyzstan, while Beterbiev is Chechen but was born in Dagestan. They are both products of this very multicultural Soviet society.”
The gloriously excessive Game of Thrones inspired promotional video for the event depicts the fighters as bloodthirsty warriors. In the case of Beterbiev, that’s not especially hard to imagine.
He was born in Khasavyurt, a town in the foothills of the Caucasus that is home to a large brick factory – it’s little wonder he has one in either glove.
Despite a modest population of just 130,000, Khasavyurt has also produced seven Olympic gold medal-winning wrestlers. It’s a breeding ground for very hard and proud men. Beterbiev is precisely that.
In 2001, when he was 15, his father died in a car crash, leaving his family struggling to support his burgeoning sporting ambitions. Sacrifices were made and nine years later he was considered the world’s best amateur fighter.
“He lost his dad just after he had won bronze in the world juniors in Baku," said Toropov. "He's a man of few words but obviously losing his father affected him deeply and he talks about how lucky he was to have his mother, who now lives with him and his family in Canada.
"He talks about how much she supported him. He tells a story about how she bought a juice maker when he was a teenager. She was a nurse and would make juices for him to look after his nutrition as he was becoming an athlete.
“It sounds like he was quite a wild kid before boxing. He would get home from school with his uniform all torn up from fighting and his mother would tell him off.”
Bivol, at 33, is the younger man by six years. The son of a Korean mother and Moldovan father, he was born in Tokmok in Kyrgyzstan where he grew up helping his parents in the fields where they grew onions and wheat.
At six he began dabbling in combat sports, and by 11 had won a national boxing competition. At that point his family sold up and moved to Saint Petersburg where his father found work as a bus driver, and he received the elite coaching that would shape a fighter who follows in the footsteps of Kostya Tszyu and Gennady Golovkin as a world champion with Soviet-Korean heritage.
"Bivol talks openly about moving and how his dad was working as a bus driver and how he really values that,” added Toropov. "He's a much more flexible character [than Beterbiev]. He can be introspective, he's a thinker. He's happy to make fun of himself. He's more easy going and always credits his parents with bringing him up that way."
Bivol's amateur success earned him his Russia vest, where he first encountered Beterbiev, a star of the team with whom he sparred rounds but never established a bond.
“He was never my friend, I never communicated warmly with him,” Bivol told Russia’s Sport-Express. “When we were in the national team I treated him with respect because he was the eldest, one of the leaders that I admired. But we were never friends. I was not particularly friendly with any of my rivals. And Artur’s character is such that – that’s it, we are rivals.”
Bivol won world gold twice as a junior but underwhelmed as a senior and was overlooked for the London Olympics. Beterbiev, formerly a double European and world champion, went to the Games as a heavyweight where he lost a quarter-final to his rival Oleksandr Usyk. The two were tied at 1-1 going into that bout.
“Their amateur careers were very different," said Toropov. "Beterbiev was an outstanding amateur. Bivol went into the Russian team when Beterbiev was a senior member and one of the top boxers in the country. Bivol was a European cadet champion, world junior champion, but as a senior he won two Russian titles but never achieved that much.”
As professionals they have risen inexorably to the top of the sport. Beterbiev's 2019 unification victory over a prime Oleksandr Gvozdyk stands out as perhaps his best win but he has since suffered with injuries, the logical toll of a long amateur and professional career and his punishing training methods.
He looked imperious in dismantling Callum Smith in January, but a subsequent knee injury saw this undisputed bout pushed back from its original June 1 date. Beterbiev insists his knee is fully healed and is ready to deliver a career-defining victory in Riyadh by extending a knockout streak that now stretches back 11 years.
Bivol’s win over Alvarez marked him out as one of the world’s finest technical fighters, although he has drawn criticism for coasting when insufficiently challenged.
There seems little danger of that on Saturday in a contest where the fascination stems from the fact that neither boxer has ever really looked like losing, but now comes up against an opponent with the style and the tools to beat the other. The boxing world is split on the outcome.
"My pick is that Bivol will outbox Beterbiev but you really can go either way," added Toropov. "Beterbiev has so much power – a glancing blow and people just collapse. It's an amazing fight."
