RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Oct. 10, 2024)  — The two greatest light heavyweights of this generation — WBC/IBF/WBO champion Artur Beterbiev and WBA king Dmitry Bivol — will meet in a legacy-defining battle for the undisputed championship on Saturday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The winner will become the division’s first undisputed ruler of the modern era and the first since Roy Jones Jr. defeated Reggie Johnson in 1999.

Beterbiev-Bivol will be a special one-fight presentation streaming live and exclusively on ESPN+ in the United States at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.

Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs), boxing’s only world champion with a 100 percent knockout ratio, won the IBF world title in 2017 and has made eight title defenses. In June 2022, he stopped Joe Smith Jr. in the second round to add the WBO title to his collection. Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) has made 12 defenses of the WBA belt, including a convincing decision over Canelo in May 2022. Since the Canelo triumph, Bivol has notched one-sided victories over Gilberto Ramirez, Lyndon Arthur, and Malik Zinad.

This is what the fighters had to say at Thursday’s press conference.

Artur Beterbiev

“They chose me. His Excellency chose me. So, let’s do it.”

“It’s not my business {to think about other fighters}. I have a fight this Saturday. I’m only focused on this fight.”

“I want a good fight. I’m preparing for a good fight. We’ll see.”

“Be ready, Dmitry. I will be ready.”

Dmitry Bivol

“Every time I think about my opponents, I get excited. One of them is the face of boxing. It was exciting to fight against this guy. Another one had around 50 fights and never lost. Another guy was a champion. So it makes me more excited, not nervous. And Artur is a great champion. He has what I want. He has the belts. And it’s not only about belts. When I look at his skills, I want to check my skills also against this amazing fighter.”

“In my training camp, in my head, I always try to visualize how it will go. And there are a lot of different scenarios. And usually, that fighter will be more calm when he realizes that he’s ready for everything. If he trains for some things in his training camp, and this happens in the ring, he’s more confident in those situations. And, of course, against Beterbiev, we had to do a great camp. We had to think about different scenarios, and we did. And now I’m just curious how it will be in the ring.”