Evgeniy Tishchenko explained why Malik Zinad will not be able to compete with Bivol

Malik Zinad from Libya is a good boxer, but he simply won’t have time to properly prepare for the fight with WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, 2016 Olympic champion Evgeniy Tishchenko told Match TV.

On June 1 in Saudi Arabia, Bivol will fight with Zinad, who is in second place in the IBF rankings. Initially, the Russian was supposed to fight with Artur Beterbiev for the title of absolute champion, but he was injured.

— I’m almost sure that he won’t be able to compete with Dmitry Bivol. The trivial thing is that less than a month and a half ago (April 24) he had a fight for the second line of the IBF in Australia. And after such a difficult away match it is difficult to get into optimal shape. But if this fight happened under different circumstances, Zinad would be a very interesting opponent for Bivol. In general, there are not many opponents now, and Zinad is on a good streak, achieving success in battles with undefeated opponents. But now he’s coming out on short notice, he’s not physically ready for 12 rounds,” Tishchenko told Match TV.

33-year-old Bivol has 22 victories in 22 fights, and 30-year-old undefeated Zinad also has 22 victories.

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