Sergio Mora insists Dmitry Bivol deserved the win over Artur Beterbiev based on his defense and ring generality. He says Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) was blocking Beterbiev’s punches on his gloves, and was unaffected by his shots.
Sergio Mora, a former lightweight fighter during his career, had picked Bivol to win before the fight, and seemed upset that his pick didn’t go through. He wanted Bivol to hit and march back to Beterbiev, which he physically couldn’t do because of his lack of power and his willingness to fight him in the trenches.
Would Clinching have worked for Bivol?
The clinching approach that Mora wanted Bivol to use mirrors what DAZN commentator Tim Bradley wanted him to do. He felt that Bivol should hit Beterbiev and then attack him immediately to neutralize his offense all night. It’s a losing game plan, which wouldn’t have worked against Beterbeiv. It’s easy for Mora to recommend that Bivol use the hold as his strategy to win, but he’s not one to be hit by him while trying to hold. Beterbiev hit Bivol hard during the clinches, and he didn’t like it.
Bivol did a lot of holding in the 12th round, but Beterbiev still landed the hardest shots to dominate. Bivol’s constant clinching in the final round gave the impression that he was in survival mode and trying to settle the fight.
Mora’s advice for Bivol to hit Beterbiev probably wouldn’t have worked because he was still getting hit around the side of the head when he held. Bivol didn’t like being hit point blank by Beterbiev during the clinches because his shots were still powerful despite him having no leverage to throw them.
The judges scored the fight 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112.
Mora says that Bivol should have used clinching and walked behind Beterbiev to prevent him from throwing. He feels Bivol missed his chance to shut down Beterbiev’s offense and test his recently surgically operated knee.
“Bivol should have done the left and strengthened the monster with the older legs. He was operated on, Beterbiev. You have to force that knee back,” said Sergio Mora to Chris Mannix channelplay Monday Morning quarterback, talking about what Dmitry Bivol should have done against Artur Beterbiev.
“Monsters don’t like to back up. When you hit them and back them up, they don’t like it,” Mora said.
Non-stop clinching would be useless for Bivol as a game plan because he couldn’t handle the short punch from the stronger Beterbiev. If Bivol had a steel chin, maybe the spoiling tactics that Bradley and Sergio Mora had advised him to use would have worked. He did not and was not willing to be caught by Beterbiev’s powerful blows.
“I still think Bivol did enough to win this fight. I think the scorecards were wrong. I think at worst, Bivol deserved a draw, but I think he won well,” said Mora. “The punches that were landed in the second half of the fight were landed on the gloves.”
The punches that Beterbiev landed on Bivol’s gloves were absorbed in his head, and he was affected. Several of the punches Beterbiev hit Bivol connected to his chin and the side of his head. They have not been blocked. If Bivol had not been affected by Beterbiev’s shots, he would have fought more aggressively in rounds 6 to 12.
“They didn’t penetrate the guard and hit Dmitry Bivol’s head back,” said Mora. “So, I couldn’t give them full credit because they were hitting the gloves. I wasn’t giving them credit and rounds for the punches that landed on their gloves.
“I gave credit to Bivol for the defense and general of the ring and not allowing Beterbiev to remove his combinations. I don’t see how the judges gave the decision to Beterbiev,” said Mora.
