Artur Beterbiev barely edged Dmitry Bivol in October, scoring a majority decision win to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion.

Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) and Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) will meet in a rematch on February 22, headlining a stacked Riyadh Season show in Saudi Arabia billed as “The Last Crescendo.”

Bivol started off the fight strong but Beterbiev closed the show in style, winning most of the second half of the fight with his typical aggressive offense.

“We are ready for Artur to [start strong] from the beginning,” Bivol told The Ring. “This is one of the things that we have thought about. We won't know until the fight. I prepared in camp that he will be faster, hit harder, and push more.

“We had some different sparring partners this time. The experience from the first fight allowed me to work on some stuff with my team and we changed some stuff. Not too many changes, but we were able to add.”

Some observers argued that Bivol did enough to win the fight, seven rounds to five, or at worse, came away with a draw. Bivol, however, gave himself a critical assessment.

“Of course, I wasn't happy with my performance,” said Bivol. “I know I could be better. I grade it maybe a six out of 10. I have thoughts on where I can be better and where I wasn't. I know why, what happened, and the reason. Now it's interesting for me: could I use all of this knowledge and be better this time? … I don't think about 'I won or I lost the fight.' I look at the moments that were good and bad. I have to create many more good moments in the rematch. That's it. I can't change anything that already happened. It makes you weak. It doesn't help you in the preparation. That's why I decided that it doesn't matter. The fight is done, and I have to move forward to the second fight.”

Although Bivol ended Beterbiev’s career-long stoppage streak, he doesn’t believe that he needs the knockout to equal the score and set up the trilogy.

“I'm not sure if I need to knock him out to win the fight. I just have to be better than the first fight,” said Bivol. “I just need to be the best version of myself. I need to be better than I was before. I need to be faster, have more endurance, throw more punches – everything.”