Artur Beterbiev is the new undisputed light heavyweight championship after a highly skilled battle with Dmitry Bivol, but the coronation is not without controversy.
Beterbiev prevailed via majority decision (116-112, 115-113 and 114-114). It appeared Bivol outboxed Beterbiev in most of the rounds, though Beterbiev came on strong in the final three rounds.
Bivol’s defense, movement, and timely combinations could have seen him winning all but one of the first eight rounds reasonably cleanly. While Beterbiev’s punches were heavier, he did not land enough in the first eight rounds to win most of those frames.
I scored the fight 116-112 for Bivol. As it turned out, Beterbiev’s performance in the championship rounds won him the fight.
CompuBox’s Ben Chan offered this in a statement that acoompanied fight stats for the main event: “Bivol connected on 50% of his power punches, while Beterbiev only landed 29% of his,” Chan wrote. “Bivol landed 33 power punches over the first six rounds while Beterbiev landed 23. Beterbiev turned the tide over the last six rounds by landing 67 power punches to Bivol’s 51. In rounds eleven and twelve Beterbiev landed 29 power punches while Bivol landed 19. The combatants were separated by 4 or less landed punches in 8 of the 12 rounds fought. One judge scored the fight a draw, 114-114. The other two judges scored the fight 115-113 and 116-112 for Beterbiev.”
Here is a look at the punch stats:
Beterbiev won the final three rounds on all three judges’ scorecards, which was the difference.
Had Bivol won just one round on all judge’s cards, the fight would have been a majority draw.
Here is a look at the official scorecards, thanks to Boxing Scene’s post.
Even with that detail, there were many in the boxing community who felt Bivol was robbed.
Unsurprisingly, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing said he felt his fighter deserved the decision.
Former world champion Josh Taylor said he thought Bivol won the fight.
WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson thought Bivol was winning and he was critical of the judges on X after the fight.
Spinnin Backfist took exception to the widest scorecard, which came from Pawel Kardyni.
UFC Roster Watch felt Bivol was “robbed.”
Josh Evanoff of BJPenn.com felt Bivol won.
Former champion Tony Bellew also said he scored the fight for Bivol.
The fight and your decision on the winner come down to what you appreciate. If you like the fighter coming forward most of the night, it’s easier to see how Beterbiev gets the nod.
If you’re a bigger fan of clean boxing, landing more and a higher percentage, you’ll like Bivol’s performance more. I believe Beterbiev did more damage overall, but Bivol won more rounds.
The latter concept is supposed to be the deciding factor, but that wasn’t the case on Saturday.
We’ll see if we get a rematch, as it seems the boxing community would appreciate a sequel. Here is a look at all of the results from the latest card from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
- Artur Beterbiev defeats Dmitry Bivol via majority decision (116-112, 115-113, 114-114) to win undisputed light heavyweight championship
- Fabio Wardley def. Frazer Clarke via first-round KO British heavyweight championship
- (c) Jai Opetaia defeats Jack Massey via 6th-round TKO – IBF cruiserweight championship
- Chris Eubank Jr. defeats Kamil Szeremeta via 7th-Round TKO
- (c) Skye Nicolson defeats Raven Chapman via unanimous decision – 99-91, 98-92(x2) – WBC featherweight title
- Ben Whittaker vs. Liam Cameron – Technical Draw
Aside from Beterbiev’s victory, the other standout performances came from Wardley, Opetaia and Nicolson.
Wardley’s destructive first-round KO in his rematch with Clarke has some wondering if he is ready to graduate to the world stage among heavyweights. A proper fight for him could be against bridgerweight champion, Lawrence Okolie, who recently jumped to heavyweight.
Opetaia was masterful as he stopped Massey. Opetaia looks like he is ready for world-class competition. He has played around with the possibilities of challenging the winner of Beterbiev-Bivol.
Nicolson was slick and superior to Chapman as she easily won a unanimous decision to set up some strong opportunities for herself against some of the bigger names in her weight region.
Also, Eubank Jr. is seemingly set to finally clash with Conor Benn as the latter climbed into the ring after his rival’s TKO victory for a faceoff.
Overall, it was another strong night of boxing in Saudi Arabia.
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