Artur Beterbiev and Dmitrii Bivol meant it when they claimed to be truly ready to do it all again.
The Ring/undisputed light heavyweight championship rematch will headline a loaded Feb. 22 show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The summit meeting between the division’s top two fighters will come less than five months after Beterbiev earned a twelve-round decision in their Oct. 12 full unification bout in Riyadh.
“One of the greatest cards ever on February 22 in Riyadh,” proclaimed Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">One of the greatest cards ever on February 22 in Riyadh 🥊🔥<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BigTime?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BigTime</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RiyadhSeason?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RiyadhSeason</a> <a href="https://t.co/4jQEowMXvD">pic.twitter.com/4jQEowMXvD</a></p>— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) <a href="https://twitter.com/Turki_alalshikh/status/1863711207565255006?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The sequel will see Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) defend The Ring championship and the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO titles. Bivol (23-1, 12KOs), The Ring No. 1 contender, attempts to avenge his lone career defeat, which ended his near seven-year WBA light heavyweight title reign.
Plans for their second meeting was common knowledge for weeks. Alalshikh confirmed on Monday that it will now headline the Feb. 22 Riyadh Season show, which carries six more main event-worthy matchups. All but one of the 14 fighters on the card appear in The Ring’s Top 10 ratings.
The co-feature will see England’s Daniel Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) attempt the second defense of his IBF heavyweight title versus former WBO titleholder Joseph Parker (35-3, 23 KOs). Their fight is one of two heavyweight clashes on the show. As reported by The Ring earlier Monday, China’s Zhilei Zhang (27-2-1, 22 KOs) and Germany’s Agit Kabayel (25-0, 17 KOs) meet for the interim WBC heavyweight title.
Dubois, Parker, Zhang and Kabayel are rated No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, at heavyweight by The Ring.
Zhang-Kabayel is the second bout on the show according to the lineup presented by Alalshikh. Opening the card, England’s Joshua Buatsi (19-0, 13 KOs) risks his interim WBA light heavyweight title versus countryman and former WBA super middleweight titlist Callum Smith (30-2, 23 KOs). Buatsi is The Ring No. 3-rated light heavyweight; Smith is No. 6.
Vergil Ortiz (22-0, 21 KOs) now has an opponent for his promised place on the show. The Ring No. 5-rated junior middleweight will defend his interim WBC title versus Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrmiv (10-1-1, 7 KOs).
News of the bout was the biggest surprise reveal on Monday—primarily since Madrimov was already budgeted for the upcoming Dec. 21 Riyadh Season show. The Ring No. 2-rated contender will face Serhii Bohachuk (24-2, 23 KOs), The Ring No. 6 junior middleweight.
Madrimov obviously has to win on Dec. 21 and escape unscathed to proceed with the desirable clash versus Ortiz. The Ring was informed that a contingency plan is in place should Madrimov become unavailable, though no further details were provided as this goes to publication.
Ortiz won the interim title from Bohachuk in their Aug. 10 Fight of the Year contender in Las Vegas.
Also confirmed was a fight that gained traction in recent days.
Shakur Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) will defend his WBC lightweight title versus Floyd Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs). Stevenson, The Ring No. 3 lightweight and a three-division titlist from Newark, New Jersey, will make his Matchroom Boxing and Riyadh Season debut. Both were originally due to come as the Oct. 12 co-feature to Beterbiev-Bivol I but suffered a hand injury which required surgery.
Schofield—the lone fighter on the show not currently in The Ring top ten divisional ratings—will enter his first title shot. The unbeaten 22-year-old Austin, Texas native forced the hand of Golden Boy Promotions chairman Oscar De La Hoya, who was apprehensive about the matchup. The Hall of Fame former six-division titlist did not stand in the way of Schofield’s dream, though, and gave the fight his blessing over the weekend.
Rounding out the show is a middleweight title fight first reported weeks ago by The Ring.
Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs) attempts his second WBC middleweight title defense versus red-hot contender Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0, 17 KOs). Dominican Republic’s Adames, The Ring No. 3-rated middleweight, has fought under the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) banner and now debuts on the Riyadh Season circuit.
England’s Sheeraz is The Ring No. 2- rated middleweight who fights on a Riyadh-branded show for the third straight time. The 25-year-old knockout artist stopped Austin Williams in the tenth round of their June 1 battle of undefeated middleweights at Kingdom Arena.
Sheeraz then headed back to jolly old England for Riyadh Season’s UK launch show at Wembley Stadium in London. The event saw Sheeraz extend his current 15-fight stoppage streak with a two-round blitzing of countryman Tyler Denny (19-2-3, 1 KOs), who was The Ring’s No. 10 contender at the time of their Sept. 21 meeting.
Beterbiev boasts the sport’s longest active title reign.
He won the IBF light heavyweight title in Nov. 2017, though injuries, illnesses and a global pandemic has slowed his activity. Beterbiev has made just nine title defenses over that stretch, though three have been in unification bouts. Knockout wins over Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Joe Smith to win added the WBC and WBO titles, respectively, to his collection.
The victory over Bivol saw Beterbiev become the first undisputed light heavyweight champion since Roy Jones fully unified the division in June 1999.
His showdown versus Bivol marks Beterbiev’s quickest ring turnaround since 2015. Bivol will fight for the fourth time in 14 months, all of which have come in Riyadh.
Jake Donovan is part of the U.S. team for The Ring. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.