Image source, Boxxer
Artur Beterbiev holds the advantage when it comes to age but not necessarily in experience.
Beterbiev, aged 39, is six years older than Dmitry Bivol but has fought on three fewer occasions.
They were scheduled to meet on June 1 but Beterbiev had to pull out after suffering a knee injury in training.
Both are yet to taste defeat and have a combined 32 knockouts across 43 contests.
Russian Beterbiev, who resides in Canada, has competed on 20 occasions and has won every fight inside the distance – he is the only current world champion to possess a 100 per cent knockout ratio.
Beterbiev won his first world title in 2017 when he beat Enrico Kolling to claim the vacant IBF light-heavyweight belt.
He added the WBC strap to his collection in 2019 after stopping Oleksandr Gvozdyk and picked up the WBO title with victory against Joe Smith Jr in 2022.
Bivol turned professional in 2014, one year after Beterbiev, but has been more active over the past 10 years.
He won the interim WBA title in just his seventh fight in 2016 and was upgraded to the ‘Super’ champion in September 2017.
Bivol earned a shock points victory against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in 2022, becoming just the second man to achieve that feat after Floyd Mayweather.
He has 12 stoppages on his record but nine of his last 10 fights have gone the distance.
