Artur Beterbiev said after the fight that he felt he had hurt Dmitry Bivol, but he says he didn’t hurt him enough during their undisputed light heavyweight championship fight last Saturday night.
The underdog Beterbiev started slow, getting caught up fighting Bivol’s game of boxing him in the first five rounds, but when he adjusted to his power style in the sixth, the fight changed. He put Bivol on the run, bruised up his left eye, and controlled the second part of the fight.
Bivol only fought sporadically from the sixth. Interestingly, Bivol had his best moments in the seventh round when he went for the knockout, flurrying on Beterbiev with nine consecutive shots. That bombardment turned out to be the turning point of the fight, as Beterbiev came storming back in that round, nailing Bivol with hard shots that had him trapped on the ropes, taking bad punishment.
You could visibly see Bivol wilting in that seventh. After that point on, Bivol was missing in action in the final five rounds, doing almost nothing from the 8th round and looking tired from the pace. For the fans who thought Bivol won, they didn’t watch the shots he was getting hit with and how he’d given up fighting hard.
Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) got the nod from the judges, winning a 12-round unanimous decision over WBA champion Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Bivol’s team isn’t handling the loss too well, with his manager, Vadim Kornilov, planning to file an official protest over the judge that scored it 116-112 for Beterbiev. The scores were:
– 114-114
– 115-113
– 116-112
The protest does nothing to change the outcome and is a waste of time. Bivol lost, and the protest won’t change that.
“I hurt him but not enough,” said Artur Beterbiev to Secondsout, reflecting on his win over Dmitry Bivol. “Yeah, I think so,” said Beterbiev when asked if he’d like to fight Bivol again.
If there is a rematch in the first half of 2025, it likely won’t end well for Bivol. He doesn’t have the power or the war-like ability to beat a fighter like Beterbiev.
“He’s got to be more active later in the fight, come forward more, put more pressure on Beterbiev, and be more eye-catching,” said Gareth A. Davies to BoxNation on what Bivol must do in the rematch. “It should be an immediate rematch. It should be in five or six months’ time.”
