Both Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev insist this fight is nothing personal. They have composed themselves with steely calm throughout the final week leading up to their fight.
Personal or not, this fight is everything. Boxing for undisputed glory, for all four major light-heavyweight world titles this Saturday, live on Sky Sports Box Office, is the summit of their professional lives.
This is the moment they have worked towards all their careers, with the intensity heightened a further notch by the fact that they have known each other for years.
Both men were on the same Russian national amateur squad, with Beterbiev a formidable heavyweight and the younger Bivol coming on as a middleweight.
Bivol was not the first choice at 75kg, while Beterbiev was a World Championship gold medallist and an Olympian.
But whether Beterbiev has always felt that he is the bigger, stronger fighter, he would not say.
“We knew each other but we didn’t talk,” he said of his past with Bivol. “We did some sparring but it wasn’t real sparring.
“I had targets [then]. I have only in my mind my next opponent,” he told Sky Sports ahead of Saturday’s Riyadh Season event.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t care about the rest of them. But now I have one opponent and that’s it. At that time too, I had many guys there.”
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Eddie Hearn says that Beterbiev vs Bivol on Sky Sports Box Office will be a ‘fight for the ages’
Bivol is adamant too that he can’t let the personal element affect him. It’s the job he needs to do.
“I consider him an opponent with the belts. It doesn’t matter that he’s Beterbiev, or somebody else,” the WBA titlist told Sky Sports.
“It’s just the guy. Four belts for me is another [thing]. And of course I will do everything and I hope I will win.
“Of course I will enjoy winning those four belts, not just [beating] him. Him as a fighter, with an 100 per cent KO [ratio], a good fighter. But not anything personal.”
However in his early amateur days he couldn’t help but look up to the leading boxers.
“He was No 1 and at that time I think I was a junior. Maybe I was watching the national competition and he was fighting there,” Bivol said.
“Because all the guys, Juniors, Cadets, we were watching because we were coming soon there.
“At that time of course I couldn’t imagine [that we’d fight], I couldn’t imagine that I would fight for four belts, undisputed.”
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Joshua Buatsi makes it clear that he wants the winner of Beterbiev vs Bivol
Winning this though means, quite simply, the world. “I could prove myself that I’m the best,” Bivol said.
No opponent has beaten Beterbiev, none of them have even managed to go the distance with him.
Beterbiev, the unified WBC, WBO and IBF champion, hopes to keep that knockout run going. “We’ll see,” he said with a knowing smile.
Bivol reflected: “Always when I’m going to the ring I’m trying to think that this is the most dangerous opponent in my career, and he is really like this.
“He’s really dangerous and it makes me more excited to be honest.
“Your level, your enemies, the level of your challenges, shows your level also.
“We will see,” he said echoing his great rival.
“October 12, it will be my show.”
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Fabio Wardley’s huge rematch with Frazer Clarke is on the epic Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol bill on Saturday October 12 live on Sky Sports Box Office. Book Wardley vs Clarke 2 and Beterbiev vs Bivol now!