BN Preview: Riyadh undercard, which includes Dmitry Bivol and Jai Opetaia, is a Christmas feast for boxing fans
By Declan Taylor
IF THE card on which Tyson Fury faced Francis Ngannou in October was a statement of intent from the Saudis, this follow up in the same district of suburban Riyadh tells us that anything goes once their Season is upon us.
As they build towards the proposed March 9 showdown between Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, with the two fallen champions featuring in co-main events here, Turki Al-Alshikh and everyone else involved in the promotion would have been forgiven for a modest undercard.
But in the Riyadh Season era, that is clearly not the way, with another big card, described as ‘probably the most bumper card in the history of boxing’ by Frank Warren, constructed in a matter of weeks.
If you remove Wilder and Joshua, who face Joseph Parker and Otto Wallin respectively, there are a further six fights on the ‘undercard’. First, some numbers. Between the 12 fighters involved in those, they boast 270 wins with only seven defeats and three draws.
And, as opposed to Fury-Ngannou, when all but one fight was contested at heavyweight, this time the card brings in ‘world’ title fights at cruiserweight and light-heavy, with Jai Opetaia and Dmitry Bivol both invited to the Kingdom to defend their hardware.
Bivol had looked as though he would join the tiny club of boxers who have been named Fighter of the Year and then failed to box at all during the following one. He was given that accolade in 2022 after victories over Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and then Gilberto Ramirez but looked to be heading for a fightless 2023.
However, with only eight days left unchecked on the calendar, he will finally box and Manchester’s once-beaten Lyndon Arthur is the man selected to face him. Bivol was ringside in Saudi for Fury-Ngannou and was even filmed doing a face-off with fellow Russian light-heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev. That long-awaited showdown is one of Turki’s dream fights for 2024 but Bivol has to get past Arthur first.
“When we were invited to Saudi I knew we would talk about my fight when I was there,” Bivol said. “We were talking about it and I realised then that it was very possible that I would be on the next card.
“I was surprised how they made that show – it’s the first time in my life I’ve seen a ring rise out of the floor. It was amazing. Now I see how Saudi want to make everything perfect, everything on the highest level. It’s good that they want to get involved in my favourite sport and I’m very glad that I’m part of the show.”
Bivol, 21-0 (11), is a staggering favourite and Arthur is priced as long as 10/1 with some bookmakers. The 32-year-old has boxed twice this year, winning both, and is now 4-0 since his 2021 rematch defeat to Anthony Yarde, but none of those opponents have been anywhere near Bivol’s level.
The real question is how Bivol wins: he’s not a noted puncher and has not stopped anyone for five years. Instead he uses his trademark, long-range, Soviet-style boxing skills to win clearly on the cards. This looks like another one of those waiting to happen.
One man who looks likely to win inside the distance, however, is Jai Opetaia. The Australian surged past previously undefeated Jordan Thompson in four brutal rounds at the Wembley Arena in September and now, three months on, faces another Brit who is yet to taste defeat.
This time Ellis Zorro, a Queensberry Promotions fighter, has the unenviable task of attempting to dethrone Opetaia and arrives in Riyadh with a 17-0 (7) record. The most significant of those wins came in May when he stopped Hosea Burton inside seven at York Hall but he has never mixed in Opetaia’s company.
The 28-year-old 2012 Olympian is considered the No.1 cruiserweight in the world and does not seem like the type to take anyone lightly or cut corners in preparation. All of that spells bad news for Zorro, a veteran of just three amateur fights, who will do well to last the distance here. An Opetaia stoppage has to be the pick.
“We’ve got another statement to make on the 23rd,” he told Boxing News. “Thompson is done and now it’s onto the next one.
“This happened real fast. They gave me like a day’s notice and then told me I had to fly to London the next day for the press conference. I said ‘sweet as, let’s go’ and I packed my bags. I’m not passing up any opportunities.
“At the time I didn’t even know who I was fighting. I don’t care – whoever they put in front of me is who I’m going to beat. I’ve watched Zorro a little bit now but we do what we do. I’ll have an answer for anything he brings.”
But while those two fights provide incredibly straightforward picks, the other fight with British interest is perhaps the most intriguing of the entire evening as London’s Daniel Dubois takes on Jarrell Miller.
This is Dubois’ first outing since he was stopped in nine by Oleksandr Usyk on a controversial night in Poland. Usyk had been floored by Dubois earlier in the fight but was given extra time to recover because Luis Pabon had deemed the shot below the belt. The Ukrainian then composed himself and took Dubois out.
He impressed in spells in that fight against arguably the best heavyweight in the world so it will be interesting to see how he fares against undefeated Miller, who has resettled in the division following his array of performance enhancing drug offences. A second-successive defeat for Dubois, however, would leave him 19-3 and out of contention at the top of the heavyweight picture for a while.
Speaking of which, New Yorker Miller was emerging as a contender in the division before he lost his opportunity to fight Joshua following failed tests back in 2019. Joshua was then knocked out by late stand-in Andy Ruiz Jnr. Four years on, ‘Big Baby’ is 35, has not yet failed a test during the course of this promotion, and knows a victory over Dubois will catapult him into contention for a major fight with one of the division’s leading lights.
However, despite 14 years as a pro, you could argue that he is yet to face anyone as good as Dubois so this will be a genuine test of his top-level credentials too. It could turn into a real firefight and if it does, Dubois and his youthful exuberance should prevail.
Between them, in their combined 48 fights, they have been the 12-round distance just once. This one is scheduled for that distance but it is difficult to see how it extends that far, if it does, however, Miller might have the style to unsettle and frustrate Dubois and win on points, but stamina for a man who once weighed in at 315lbs could be an issue.
The remaining three fights on the card are also all at heavyweight and the clash between Arslanbek Makhmudov and Agit Kabayel looks like fireworks waiting to happen. Along with Parker, the 18-0 (17) Makhmudov is the only other man to feature on both Fury-Ngannou and this one but he should have a harder night’s work this time around.
In October, the 34-year-old crushed a terrified-looking Junior Anthony Wright in just 70 seconds of their scheduled 10-rounder. The 6ft 5in Russian, nicknamed The Lion, is currently No.9 in the world but he has the power to trouble any man above him.
Kabayel is the younger of the two but has been a professional for 12 years. Even so, he has boxed just six times in as many years since he beat Dereck Chisora in the first defence of his European heavyweight title back in 2017.
His last outing was a three-round demolition of Agron Smakici in March which gleaned that same title once more and this showdown with Makhmudov is unlikely to go much longer than that, regardless who wins. But it is the Russian, currently signed with Top Rank, who looks best placed to triumph here, and should get the job done in the first half of the fight.
The man who sits one place above Makhmudov in the world rankings, Frank Sanchez, is also in action but he might need the judges’ scorecards in order to beat Junior Fa. Sanchez, 31, is 23-0 with 16 quick and has barely put a foot wrong during his rise to the heavyweight top 10. He arrives in Saudi off the back of three consecutive knockouts, most recently against Scott Alexander, who was vanquished in four on the Canelo-Jermell Charlo undercard in September.
Fa, meanwhile, is back among the wins following back-to-back defeats, firstly against Joseph Parker in their 2021 12-rounder before he was stunned in a round by Lucas Browne in the June of 2022. He bounced back with a low-key, 45-second win over 0-6 Tussi Asafo the following October so this outing represents his first appearance for 14 months.
Even so, Fa remains a capable operator and, that shock upset against Browne aside, has not looked vulnerable at many points in his career. There is every chance that this goes the distance and, if it does, Sanchez should have enough to claim a unanimous decision.
But the judges can put their feet up in the other heavyweight fight of the night as top contender Filip Hrgovic, rated at No.5 in the world, fights the world’s original Youtuber boxer Mark De Mori in what is the card’s biggest mismatch according to bookies.
Hrgovic is 16-0 (13) and is fresh off the back of a 12th-round stoppage win over Demsey McKean in London in August. This is not his first Saudi rodeo, however, given he knocked out Eric Molina in three rounds in 2019 and beat Zhilei Zhang in Jeddah last year but the latter was a fight that many thought he had lost.
That’s the only blot on an otherwise flawless notebook, however, with Hrgovic hailed by many as the heir apparent to the heavyweight crown. Although he has not quite scaled the heights expected of him, he is still well poised in the division and will likely fight for the IBF heavyweight title next summer.
That is only if he can avoid what would be one of the biggest upsets this century against 18/1 shot De Mori, a man most famous for learning how to fight by watching Youtube videos before he was flattened by David Haye inside a round at the o2 Arena back in 2016.
He has racked up 11 wins since that night, 10 by stoppage, and three against Hungarian Laszlo Toth, who made it to the second round in their first encounter before a pair of first round stoppages.
De Mori warmed up for this one by outpointing a 5ft 6in Indonesian man called Michael Speed Sigarlaki, who was once a 129lb super-featherweight but now does his bidding as a 249lb heavyweight. The pair shared eight rounds at the Atlas Super Club in Canggu but De Mori has since graduated to a ring which rises out of the Saudi sand. We wish De Mori, now 41, the very best of luck but this could be ugly.
How a fight with this vast gulf between the fighters made it onto such an important card is anyone’s guess but, in the end, it will be little more than a footnote on another impressive chapter in the early story of Saudi boxing.
