Former WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) became the new undisputed champion on Saturday night, beating previously undefeated champ Artur Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) by a highly competitive 12-round majority decision in their clash at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The scores: 114-114, 116-112, and 115-113.
Beterbiev wasn’t letting his hands go from rounds eight through eleven, just following Bivol around the ring. It could be that age caught up to the 40-year-old Beterbiev. The openings were there, but he wouldn’t throw. In the 12th, Beterbiev came to life and battered Bivol all around the ring, jacking up his left eye and forcing him to hold and run.
The well-conditioned WBO interim heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (36-3, 24 KOs) showed his class tonight, knocking out substitute opponent Martin Bakole (21-2, 16 KOs in round two. Parker took advantage of the slow, ponderous punches of the 310-lb Bakole to clock him with a right hand to the head that put him down hard back-first on the canvas. After he peeled himself up off the canvas, the fight was stopped. The time of the stoppage was at 2:17 of the round.
WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) stopped a very poor-looking substitute opponent, Josh Padley (15-1, 4 KOs), in the ninth round, winning by a technical knockout. Padley’s corner threw in the towel after he’d been dropped three times in the round with body shots.
The time was at 3:00 in the ninth. Stevenson showed little power and appeared to hurt his left hand in the sixth round after landing a headshot. However, he wasn’t looking impressive even before that.
WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs) and Hamzah Sheeraz (21-0-1, 17 KOs) battled to a controversial 12-round draw. Adames appeared to win 10-2, but the judges scored it 115-114 for Sheeraz, 118-110 for Adames and 114-114. Boxing 247 scored it 118-110 for Adames. He pressed the action the entire fight, getting the better of the stork-like Sheeraz, who looked frozen, unable to pull the trigger on his punches. Going into the fight, some believed that the only way Adames would win against the popular A-side fighter Hamzah would be to knock him out. Tonight’s results showed that was a pretty accurate prediction.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. (23-0, 21 KOs) held onto his WBC interim Junior middleweight title with a narrow 12-round unanimous decision win over Israil Madrimov (10-2-1, 7 KOs). A battered-looking Ortiz Jr’s pressure wore down Madrimov in the second half to grind out a close decision. It wasn’t as impressive a fight as many had expected because Madrimov moved too much. Ortiz Jr. looked slow and did a lot of plodding. A lot of rabbit punching from Vergil Jr. that the referee didn’t say anything about. This fight could have been scored a draw as neither guy did enough. Vergil Jr. getting the decision isn’t a shock because we saw the same thing in his last fight against Serhii Bohachuk.
The scores
117-111
115-113
115-113
Agit Kabayel (26-0, 18 KOs) destroyed Zhilei Zhang (27-3-1, 22 KOs) with his powerful body attack, stopping him in the sixth round to win the WBC interim heavyweight title. In the sixth, Kabayel knocked a tired-looking 41-year-old Zhang down with a perfectly placed right hand to the solar plexus. Zhang couldn’t get back to his feet and was counted out. The time of the stoppage was at 2:29 of the round. In the fifth, Zhang had dropped Kabayel with a left hook to the head and had him hurt. However, he didn’t have the engine to finish him.
Former WBA super middleweight champion Callum Smith (31-2, 22 KOs) had too much firepower for WBO interim light heavyweight champion Joshua Buatsi (19-1, 13 KOs), pounding out a 12-round unanimous decision. The scores were 119-110, 115-113 and 116-112. Buatsi had success with his pressure and superior stamina in the championship rounds. However, a tired-looking Smith showed that he still had lethal power in the 12th, hurting Buatsi repeatedly with hard shots to the head that had him badly hurt and barely able to stay on his feet.
