WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, hands down, is one of the most talented boxers in the division. He often catches the public eye because of his Soviet boxing style, which has also made him a force to be reckoned with. However, he never would have acquired this talent without his father, Yuriy Bivol.

As the undefeated Russian prepares to test his mettle against WBC, WBO, and IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev on October 12th at the Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia, Bivol sat down with Daily Mail, where the secret behind his elusive Soviet boxing style was unraveled for all to know. 

When asked about it, the 33-year-old said, “My style is because of my dad.” Bivol explained that right from when he started, whether he was training or actually fighting, “my dad would get so angry” if Bivol was on the wrong end of a punch to the face. Even a win in the fight wouldn’t get him out of a scolding from his father. 

“I remember I won some competition. It was 2008, and I was maybe 17 years old at the time,” Dmitry Bivol recollected. He had won a fight against an opponent from Kyrgyzstan, which the Russian explained was during a “hard competition”, and also managed to win the award for “being the best fighter of the tournament.”

While this impressed Yuriy at first, it quickly turned into anger after learning what his son had to go through to win the award. “I was so happy about it and I was so proud of myself,” Bivol told Daily Mail’s Charlotte Daly, explaining his excitement after the competition. So, he rushed home to show it to his father, and initially, his father was happy. 

“But then he watched back all of my fights and he wasn’t happy at all,” Bivol said. Recollecting, Bivol explained that his father wasn’t happy about him getting punched in the face multiple times during the fight. When Bivol tried to reason with his father, highlighting that he punched his opponents more, Yuriy said, “It’s not good boxing when you are getting punched in the face.”

That, coupled with the fact that Bivol was just a kid, really didn’t sit well with his father. “I could land 10 punches and get hit once and he would not be happy,” Bivol said. This led to Yuriy’s initial resentment with boxing, who threatened his son to pull him out of the sport. “I don’t need a son who will [get] hit in the head a lot,” Dmitry Bivol reiterated his father’s statement. This led to him perfecting his Soviet style of elusive boxing, which made him the formidable champion he is today.

However, his parents’ influence on his boxing career has been much more than this. 

Dmitry Bivol reflects on the sacrifices his parents made

Talking to DAZN recently, the WBA light heavyweight champion looked back in time, revealing the sacrifices his parents made for him and his siblings. Born to a Moldovan father and a mother of Korean descent, his parents uprooted their lives in Kyrgyzstan to provide better opportunities for their children. “I cannot tell that they sacrifice all only because of me,” Bivol said.

“They sacrificed for all of my siblings. They knew that we needed a good university.” He even fondly recalled his life back in Kyrgyzstan, which seems to have shaped his outlook on life. “It was multi-national, multi-cultural. In my grade in school, I felt myself as a normal human being. We were friendly with each other. We weren’t separated by culture,” he added.

That said, in his upcoming blockbuster against Artur Beterbiev, Dmitry Bivol is aiming not only to maintain his unbeaten record and become undisputed in the division but also to honor the sacrifices and the lessons he learned from his parents. What did you think of the story behind Bivol’s Soviet boxing style?