Beterbiev’s Aggression Won Him The Fight

The judges favored Artur Beterbiev’s aggression over the movement and half-hearted punches thrown by Dmitry Bivol on Saturday night in their undisputed light heavyweight championship fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Bivol was impressive, but he failed to throw power punches the way Beterbiev did. He was throwing lighter punches, and then moving away.

Even when Bivol flurried on Beterbiev in the seventh round, the punches were weak, and that’s why Artur was able to come back right away to dominate the remainder of that round. The crowd got excited, thinking Bivol was going to knockout Beterbiev with his flurry, but the shots had no pop on them. Beterbiev came back in the round to nail Bivol with thudding headshots to get the better of him.

The judges gave it to the more aggressive fighter, Beterbiev, by the scores 114-114, 115-113, and 116-112. When the fight was on the line in the last four rounds, Bivol chose to move. When 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 this were a dance contest, WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) would have won because he was using his fancy footwork to escape the powerful punches from IBF, WBC, and WBO light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) all night.

The movement that Bivol utilized in the second half of the fight is what sunk his ship. He was throwing one to two shots and then moving. He wouldn’t stay in the trenches to battle Beterbiev hand-to-hand or with his E-tools the way he needed

Bivol’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, called it a “robbery,” but that was silly. 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 ringside that had Artur Beterbiev winning the fight. How can you give Dmitry Bivol only four rounds? It was an absolute masterclass,” said Eddie Hearn to the Stomping Grounds, sounding disgruntled about his fighter Dmitry Bivol losing to Artur Beterbiev.

That was not a masterclass from Bivol. It was a blow-it by him for failing to fight hard in the important rounds. He moved well, but he wasn’t fighting Beterbiev. There’s a difference. What makes Beterbiev’s win even more special is his age and the fact that he was coming off a blown-out meniscus knee injury last May. Beterbiev will turn 40 on January 21st, yet he still showed more aggression and ambition than the 33-year-old Bivol.

“No disrespect to Artur Beterbiev. He’s a tremendous fighter. He did not win that fight. You heard after the tenth round his corner tell him, ‘You have to knock him out to win the fight.’ We got in the ring after the fight, and Top Rank and everyone in the corner knew they’d lost the fight.

“No one even said to me [from Bivol’s team], ‘Have we got it?’ It was just, ‘We’ve done it.’ That judge should never work again. Four rounds of a fight of this magnitude” said Hearn about the judge that scored it 116-112 [8-4] for Beterbiev.

“I’m so disappointed for Dmitry Bivol. He should be the undisputed champion tonight. Some people had it 8-2 after 10. I’m just baffled. Dmitry Bivol is such a nice bloke. I think he’s been robbed. A life of hard work to achieve that tonight. You see controversial decisions all the time, but to see it in a fight of this magnitude is so disappointing,” said Hearn.

Bivol needs to learn from his loss and fight harder next time. The judges aren’t going to automatically give him a win if he’s on his bike, trying to escape 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 shots.