With the sacrifice of his family to nurture his career, Dmitry Bivol has become the most outstanding representative of the disciplined fighting style in the contemporary boxing village.

At 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, October 13, Vietnam time, Dmitry Bivol will enter the most important match of his career. The owner of the WBA light heavyweight belt will face Artur Beterbiev – who holds three titles of WBC, IBF and WBO.

Admiring Jackie Chan led to the decision to come to Boxing

Dmitry Bivol grew up in a family with his mother – Mrs. Yelena – a Russian of Korean origin – one of the ethnic minorities with about 500 thousand people concentrated in the countries east of the former Soviet Union. His father, Mr. Yuri Bivol, is of Moldovan origin.

Yuri and Yelena met as students and later decided to live in Kyrgyzstan, a land of many different ethnicities.

Dmitry Bivol was born on December 19, 1990 in Tokmok, a small city east of the capital Bishshek. At that time, his parents were farmers growing onions and wheat. “My childhood was spent helping my family with farm work,” Dmitry Bivol recalls.

Like many other children in the 90s, Bivol grew up watching Jackie Chan’s Kungfu movies, which is why he was introduced to Wushu. However, Bivol soon realized that he did not like kicks when he lifted his feet off the ground. And so, at the age of 6, Yuri decided to introduce his son to Boxing.

Choosing to grow up
The life of farmers is not easy, and the decision to let their children pursue a career in sports is even more difficult. “When I first started boxing, I had to practice in ballet shoes. The families of the team members had to chip in to buy a car and pay for gas so we could compete.”

“Once when we competed, a boy burst into tears. I asked him about it and he said, ‘My dad struggled to earn enough money to take me to compete, and I lost in the first match.’ That made us mature sooner.”

Bivol’s maturity is proven by his 23 consecutive wins since his amateur debut. At the age of 11, he won the national youth championship against an opponent 3 years older than him. In all tournaments, Bivol was accompanied by his father, Yuri Bivol, who always believed in his son.

In 2002, the Bivol family sold all their possessions and moved to St. Petersburg, hoping that he could access the best training environment in Russia. Mr. Yuri became a bus driver to nurture the budding career of the 12-year-old boy.

Mr. Yuri’s belief soon became a reality. Dmitry Bivol won the European schoolboy championship three years later, and won the world junior championship in 2006 and 2007. By 2013, Dmitry Bivol had won his first world-level gold medal at the World Combat Games held in St. Petersburg.

A quote that decided his entire career

“I don’t like my son to be proud of the cuts on his face. Don’t show the audience his snot, blood, lips and face. Give a classic and beautiful fight.”

That was the saying of Mr. Yuri, Dmitry Bivol’s father, that shaped his entire image in the ring later.

Growing up in the Boxing environment of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Bivol inherited the technical system from the old Soviet era. In which, his most famous teacher was also one of the top coaches of the Soviet Union – Nikolay Isaev.

Nikolay Isaev’s style is characterized by the “pendulum step” movement, the boxer’s legs and body always bounce, taking advantage of the momentum to move forward and backward reasonably, keeping the boxer in a state of readiness to retreat or press when necessary.

If we look back at Dmitry Bivol’s 23 professional matches, we can still see the characteristics of the Soviet style “pendulum step”. They are not flashy, tricky with diving techniques like American or British boxing; no risk, violent with close-quarters, sledgehammer swings like the Mexican style, all encapsulated in the phrase “minimalism”.

The world boxing village is not short of boxers who grew up in the Soviet system, such as the Klitschko brothers, former light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, “Matrix” Vasyl Lomachenko or most recently the heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk. However, people still see somewhere the combination of other fighting styles in them. With Bivol, this mixture is very little.

Rarely stunned, almost no cuts in his entire career, that’s what people still remember about Dmitry Bivol. Among them, the most impressive image and also the most famous match of Bivol with Canelo Alvarez. Dmitry Bivol did not receive a significant injury, even though he had just gone through 12 rounds with one of the best boxers in the world, who brought a fierce Mexican style. He became the second man after legend Floyd Mayweather Jr to send Canelo home with a loss.

In front of the camera, Dmitry Bivol is as cold and minimalist as his fighting style. “I was taught not to insult my opponent, not to say what I can’t do and not to say what I don’t know.” This teaching has created an unbreakable psychological wall for Dmitry Bivol, keeping him completely focused no matter who his opponent is.

That is what has turned Dmitry Bivol into a special name, a rare person who still maintains the “old” image in the present. But also from this style, Bivol thoroughly realizes his father’s teachings.

From mentality to fighting style, Dmitry Bivol seems to be completely different from the rest of the current boxing world. He does not possess bloody matches, thousand-pound punches; nor does he use provocative words to his opponents or act up every time he appears – things that are considered “inevitable” for a boxer who wants to be famous in this era.

Dmitry Bivol is the perfect representative of the other half. That is to focus entirely on simplicity and expertise to achieve the current success.

The biggest challenge before Artur Beterbiev
Of course, any boxer when entering the boxing village, also dreams of the day holding the 4 most prestigious belts in hand. Dmitry Bivol is preparing to achieve that goal when facing Artur Beterbiev.

There is also a reason why most of the audience believes that the tank Artur Beterbiev is a much more difficult challenge than Canelo. Simply, Beterbiev is a light heavyweight, sweeping this weight class to turn professional in 2013, and starting to hold the first world championship title (IBF) in 2017.

In contrast to Dmitry Bivol, Beterbiev brings a fighting style that forces every opponent to throw heavy blows at him, and he is always the one who stands last. Callum Johnson, Jeff Page Jr and Marcus Browne all had hopes of beating Beterbiev but none of them lasted past the 10th round.

Artur Beterbiev is Dmitry Bivol’s final test, who will see if he is worthy of the title of the defending king of modern boxing. Can Bivol maintain his unbeaten streak, become the successor to the legendary Roy Jones Jr to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion and once again bring the old Soviet style to the top of the world? All will be answered in the confrontation early this Sunday morning.