“Ask him the question why he says he signed a contract to fight me,” Beterbiev said in an interview with the channel “Ushataika”. “It turns out he’s lying. He says he signed a contract to fight me. Why mess with people? It’s stupid. I think you have to respect the people who listen to you and think you’re saying the right things.”
At the same time, Beterbiev, who knocked out Britain’s Callum Smith last weekend, expects the world title fight against Bivol to actually happen.
“I’m all for it. Negotiations will start now and I welcome this fight. We have questions for each other. He has one belt, I have three belts, and we need to unify them. I’ve never been against unification fights, I’ve always been open to it, and now we’ll see how open he is. There are no specifics yet, but I really hope the fight with Bivol happens this year”
Three weeks ago Dmitry Bivol successfully defended his WBA championship belt and also took the IBO title by defeating Britain’s Lyndon Arthur by unanimous decision over twelve rounds at the Riyadh Boxing Night.