Gareth A. Davies saw unified lightweight champion Artur Beterbiev “bullying” Dmitry Bivol during parts of the subsequent rounds to get the victory by a 12-round majority decision on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Where Bivol made a huge mistake by playing it safe in the 12th round, moving and holding Beterbiev, Dmitry acted as if he already had the win in the bag and wanted to coast to make sure he didn’t get knocked out. In retrospect, it was a big mistake.
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) says he wasn’t tired in the last three rounds from the 10th, but rather he was trying to be “perfect” while being bombarded relentlessly by Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs). What Bivol means to be “perfect” can be translated as elusive to escape the bombardment. He was trying to neutralize Beterbiev’s offense, but he forgot that he needed to engage to win the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds.
Bivol retreated under fire, and did not pull back much in the last three rounds, and got the stuffing beaten out of him by Beterbiev. Pro-Bivol fans claim he was blocking Beterbiev’s shots and he had to. That’s not what happened. He had been badly hit by Beterbiev and seemed to be trying to save his own skin.
“I had Beterbiev winning the second half of the fight, except for the ninth round. Bivol (won) probably the first four, but the fourth round was a bit of a tossup. I had Beterbiev commanding the other rounds,” said Gareth A. Davies to Pro Boxing fansgiving a breakdown of his analysis of the results of the fight Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol.
“There were a couple of swing rounds in those seven that I gave to Beterbiev, but I gave those seven to him. His overall aggressive ring, his tenaciousness, and the fact that Bivol was on the back foot very much. I looked again this morning and gave Bivol the fourth round.
“I scored it 7-5 after watching closely. I just thought that Beterbiev did a more tenacious and aggressive job. It was a very close fight. I will not argue with a draw in those swing rounds. I liked what I got seen by him. I think it was bullying Bivol at times. I don’t think everyone agrees with that,” said Gareth.
Beterbiev did more than bully Bivol during the backstretch of the fight. He was punking her with his non-stop power punch, and making her look bad in the process.
