Dmitry Bivol’s promoter Eddie Hearn sounded like a classic example of a sore loser after his 12-round majority decision loss to unified lightweight champion Artur Beterbiev on Saturday night in Riyadh. He struggled to understand what had happened to his fighter Bivol, who collapsed under the pressure of the tough Beterbiev during their clash.
Matchroom boss Hearn had Bivol winning 8-4 on his mind and was shocked to see him lose. It seemed obvious what had happened. When Bivol started getting hit hard by Beterbiev in the seventh, he stopped fighting and ran the last five rounds and lost.
Beterbiev ruined Big Canelo’s plans for Bivol
Hearn says he wants the judge who scored the fight 116-112 for Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) to never work another fight. Obviously, Bivol’s loss dashes Hearn’s hopes for a fight against Canelo Alvarez that would have been in play had he won.
The Canelo-Bivol rematch would have strengthened the soft dough, bringing untold riches. Instead, Bivol has his first loss, and his career seems shaky, so he needs to try to avenge the loss. That doesn’t look good.
A rematch could be much worse for Bivol, with him likely to be knocked out by Beterbiev. If Bivol loses to Beterbiev again, he will be a useless ballast for Hearn, who won’t be able to do much with him other than use him as a B-player to fight David Benavidez, David Morrell, or Joshua Buatsi.
Interestingly, the 116-112 score that Hearn was hitting was the same score that many fans on social media had for Beterbiev, who beat a tired and injured looking Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) in the last half of the game. action last night at the Kingdom Arena.
“How can we forget what happened in the ring? We want to forget one of the biggest fights of our generation and in the most important fight of Bivol’s life, you gave him four rounds? It’s absolutely disgusting,” said Eddie Hearn Matchroom BoxingSpeaking of the judge who scored Beterbiev vs. Bivol fight 116-112 for Artur.
“They knew Artur Beterbiev had lost this fight,” Hearn said of Beterbiev’s corner. “Top Rank knew that Beterbiev had lost this fight. Then, word came out that Artur Beterbiev had won a majority decision. I am absolutely shocked and disgusted by the scorecard of 116-112. 115-113, I don’t like it.
“8-4 to Dmitry Bivol,” Hearn said of how he scored the fight, giving his fighter Bivol the victory by a round margin of 116-112 over Beterbiev. “He (Bivol) shot brilliantly here tonight. I don’t want to disrespect Beterbiev, but Bivol should be the undisputed champion tonight, and that judge should never work again,” Hearn said of the judge who score 8-4 for Beterbiev.
“Four rounds of a fight of this magnitude is disgusting. I’m not saying it was an upset victory or a landslide by Dmitry Bivol. Nobody had Artur Beterbiev winning that fight. I didn’t even hear a draw. Beterbiev was deflated. They knew they had lost the fight.
“It was such a great fight to watch. Dmitry was so smart. He got hurt a couple of times. He hurt Beterbiev a couple of times. He took so much on the gloves. Everything marked him there (in Bivol’s face). You can see it was from the gauze on his tape.
“He just boxed a good fight into a tough fight. When you get an opportunity like that and box like that and you don’t get the decision, it’s really bad,” Hearn said.
