The judges favored Artur Beterbiev’s aggression over the movement and middle punches thrown by Dmitry Bivol on Saturday night in their undisputed lightweight championship fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Bivol was impressive, but he failed to throw power punches like Beterbiev. He threw lighter blows, then walked away.
Even when Bivol went down on Beterbiev in the seventh round, the punches were weak, and that’s why Artur was able to come right back to dominate the rest of that round. The crowd got excited, thinking that Bivol was going to knock out Beterbiev with his fury, but the shots had no pop on them. Beterbiev came back in the ring to hit Bivol with sweeping head shots to get the better of him.
The judges gave it to the more aggressive fighter, Beterbiev, with the points 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112. When the fight was on the line in the last four rounds, Bivol chose to move. When the judges saw that Beterbiev was the one pushing the fight, they felt he deserved to win the rounds in the important part of the fight in the last half.
If it was a dance contest, WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) would have won because he used his footwork to escape the powerful punches of the IBF light heavyweight champion, WBC and WBO Beterbiev (21-0). , 20 KO) all night.
The move that Bivol used in the second half of the fight is what sank his ship. He would throw one or two shots and then move. He didn’t stay in the trenches to fight Beterbiev hand to hand or with his E-tools the way he needed to.
Bivol’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, called it “rob,“but it was stupid. Beterbiev did more, especially in the last three rounds. How could he be so wrong? Bivol didn’t do enough to win.
“I couldn’t find anyone who had Artur Beterbiev winning the fight. How can you give Dmitry Bivol only four times? It was an absolute masterclass,” Eddie Hearn told the stomping grounds, He seems upset about his fight Dmitry Bivol lost to Artur Beterbiev.
It was not a masterclass from Bivol. It was a knock on him for not fighting hard in the important rounds. He was moving well, but he was no Beterbiev fighter. There is a difference. What makes Beterbiev’s win even more special is his age and the fact that he was coming off a knee meniscus injury last May. Beterbiev turns 40 on January 21, but has always shown more aggression and ambition than the 33-year-old Bivol.
“No disrespect to Artur Beterbiev. He’s a tremendous fighter. He didn’t win that fight. You heard after the tenth round his corner said to him, ‘You’ve got to hit him to win the fight.’ We got into the ring after the fight, and Top Rank and everyone in the corner knew they had lost the fight.
“Nobody even said to me (from Bivol’s team) ‘Did we have?’ It was just, ‘We did.’ That judge should never work again. Four rounds of a fight of this magnitude,” Hearn said about to the judge who scored 116-112 (8-4) for Beterbiev.
“I’m so disappointed for Dmitry Bivol. He should have been the undisputed champion tonight. Some people had him 8-2 after 10. I’m just confused. Dmitry Bivol is such a nice guy. I think he was robbed. A lifetime of work tough to get this tonight. You see controversial decisions all the time, but to see it in a fight of this magnitude is so disappointing,” Hearn said.
Bivol needs to learn from his loss and fight harder next time. The judges won’t automatically give him a win if he’s on his bike, trying to escape the pressure from a fighter like Beterbiev. That looked so bad. With the fight on the line in rounds six through twelve, Bivol was moving, trying to escape the heavy blows.
