Dmitri Bivol and Artur Beterbiev | Autopsies of a great victoire

The Quebec clan of Artur Beterbiev did not celebrate the unification of the light heavyweight world champion belts on the night of Saturday to Sunday in Riyadh.

While the boxer was having tea with his Chechen friends, Marc Ramsay went to watch hockey in his room with chips and juice. While Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson shined against the Ottawa Senators, the coach put down on paper his impressions of everything that led to this victory by majority decision against Russian Dmitri Bivol, undefeated in 23 fights until then.

“There were positives and negatives,” said Ramsay, who was back in the office on Tuesday.

Completely empty, the gym that bears his name in the Parc-Extension district retained the scent of sweat, mixed with those of the rubber mats, from the training session he had led in the morning.

While Beterbiev took advantage of his stay in Saudi Arabia to make another pilgrimage to Mecca, Ramsay was already focusing on the next steps. He is not the type to rest on his laurels, nor to congratulate himself after having guided his protégé for 11 years towards the rare status of undisputed champion in the light heavyweight category.

“It’s sure it’s fun, it’s satisfying, but the members of the team, we’re not very inclined to watch what we’re doing. We’re really on a roll and we’ll take the time to look at all this when it’s over, at the end of my coaching career. »

“Bivol was at the end of his tether”

Ramsay didn’t exactly shudder while waiting for the decision to be announced. Two judges gave Beterbiev the victory (116-112, 115-113) while a third saw a 114-114 draw. A representative of the WBC had given him a nod signifying that the outcome would go in their favor.

“I knew it was very tight and I pushed Artur a lot in the [trois] final rounds, which I felt he won. I hoped it was enough because the first part of the fight was more on Bivol’s side. »

Deeming the outcome uncertain after the ninth attack, Ramsay ordered Beterbiev to “do something special” and go for the “home run”, as he had achieved in his 20 previous outings.

“It was almost like lying to him to impose a kind of sense of urgency on him, because that’s the right way to fight,” said the coachfor whom the K.-O. “was never a goal.”

“I expected that [la séquence] ends one day, especially when you start facing great boxers like Bivol. It would have been fun if we managed to maintain it, but the objective is to win boxing fights, no matter how. »

Bivol therefore resisted to become the first rival of the Montrealer to make it to the final bell.

“Two more rounds and it was over,” Ramsay nevertheless judged. [Bivol] didn’t throw anything anymore and we could see that he was at the end of his rope. »

Severe?

The technician, however, shares the opinion expressed by Beterbiev in the ring, namely that he had “not been good enough” and that he would have liked “more quality”. “I don’t know why, but I didn’t like that fight,” added the unified champion.

Refusing “apologies”, Ramsay nevertheless revealed that Beterbiev had experienced “a little bit more difficult camp” which forced the group to take “some detours” in planning. But “nothing major” like the knee injury which forced an operation and the postponement of the clash scheduled for 1^is June originally.

Between the cables of the Kingdom arena, Beterbiev did not appear at the top of his form during the first assaults.

“We thought Artur was a little too patient,” noted Ramsay. He was boxing with Bivol, but I wanted him to fight. Every time we did it, we were alone in the ring. There were full minutes where Bivol wouldn’t throw anything at all because Artur was attacking him. »

In the circumstances, Ramsay therefore judges that Beterbiev can revise his copy.

“With an ordinary performance, we were still able to beat Bivol. That says a lot.

— Isn’t that a bit harsh?

— He’s tough on himself, the team is just as tough, Ramsay replied. We therefore impose quality standards on ourselves. We think he’s capable of doing better than that, even though he achieved a pretty formidable feat. »

The coach plans to meet Beterbiev when he returns to Montreal next week. The father of four, who turns 40 on January 21, doesn’t seem to want to stop there. In all likelihood, a rematch against Bivol, desired by everyone, including the promoters, will be the preferred route.

“I don’t know the secrets of the gods and I don’t have any information on this, but first of all I think that Bivol deserves a rematch,” Ramsay assessed. And that would be logical for Artur. That’s probably the direction it’s going to take. I would be very surprised if we went towards something else. »

After returning to training at the beginning of January, Beterbiev would be ready to fight “at the end of March, beginning of April”, according to his trainer.