Artur Beterbiev mentioned after the battle that he felt he had harm Dmitry Bivol, however he says he didn’t harm him sufficient throughout their undisputed mild heavyweight championship battle final Saturday night time.
The underdog Beterbiev began sluggish, getting caught up preventing Bivol’s sport of boxing him within the first 5 rounds, however when he adjusted to his energy type within the sixth, the battle modified. He put Bivol on the run, bruised up his left eye, and managed the second a part of the battle.
Bivol solely fought sporadically from the sixth. Apparently, Bivol had his greatest moments within the seventh spherical when he went for the knockout, flurrying on Beterbiev with 9 consecutive photographs. That bombardment turned out to be the turning level of the battle, as Beterbiev got here storming again in that spherical, nailing Bivol with arduous photographs that had him trapped on the ropes, taking unhealthy punishment.
You might visibly see Bivol wilting in that seventh. After that time on, Bivol was lacking in motion within the last 5 rounds, doing nearly nothing from the eighth spherical and searching drained from the tempo. For the followers who thought Bivol received, they didn’t watch the photographs he was getting hit with and the way he’d given up preventing arduous.
Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) received the nod from the judges, profitable a 12-round unanimous determination over WBA champion Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) on the Kingdom Enviornment in Riyadh.
Bivol’s staff isn’t dealing with the loss too nicely, together with his supervisor, Vadim Kornilov, planning to file an official protest over the choose that scored it 116-112 for Beterbiev. The scores had been:
– 114-114
– 115-113
– 116-112
The protest does nothing to vary the result and is a waste of time. Bivol misplaced, and the protest received’t change that.
“I harm him however not sufficient,” mentioned Artur Beterbiev to Secondsout, reflecting on his win over Dmitry Bivol. “Yeah, I believe so,” mentioned Beterbiev when requested if he’d prefer to battle Bivol once more.
If there’s a rematch within the first half of 2025, it possible received’t finish nicely for Bivol. He doesn’t have the ability or the war-like skill to beat a fighter like Beterbiev.
“He’s received to be extra energetic later within the battle, come ahead extra, put extra stress on Beterbiev, and be extra eye-catching,” mentioned Gareth A. Davies to BoxNation on what Bivol should do within the rematch. “It ought to be a direct rematch. It ought to be in 5 – 6 months’ time.”
