Sergio Mora insists Dmitri Bivol deserved the win over Artur Beterbiev based on his defense and ring generalship. He says that Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) blocked Beterbiev’s punches on his gloves, and he was not hit by his shots.
Sergio Mora, a former light-punching finesse-level fighter during his career, picked Bivol to win before the fight, and seemed upset about his pick not going his way. He wanted Bivol Beterbiev to capitulate and back off, which he was physically unable to do due to his lack of strength and his unwillingness to fight him in the trenches.
Would clinching have worked for Bivol?
The shrinking approach that Mora wanted Bivol to use mirrors what DAZN commentator Tim Bradley wanted him to do. He felt Bivol should have hit Beterbiev and then immediately tied him up to neutralize his offense all night. It’s a losing game plan that wouldn’t have worked against Beterbeiv. It’s easy for Mora to recommend that Bivol hold as his strategy to win, but he’s not the one who should have been hit by him trying to hold. Beterbiev hit Bivol hard during the clinches, and he didn’t like it.
Bivol held a lot in the 12th round, but Beterbiev still landed the harder punches to dominate. Bivol’s consistent finish in the finals gave the impression that he was in survival mode and try to stop the fight.
Mora’s advice for Bivol to clinch Beterbiev probably wouldn’t have worked, as he was still getting hit around the side of the head when holding. Bivol didn’t like getting hit by Beterbiev during the knockouts because his punches were still power even though he didn’t have the leverage to throw.
The judges scored the fight 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112.
Mora says Bivol should have used clinching and Beterbiev stepped back to stop him from throwing. He feels that Bivol missed his chance to shut down Beterbiev’s offense and test his recently operated knee.
“Bivol should have let him miss and backed up the monster with the older legs. He had an operation, Beterbiev. You have to force that knee back,” Sergio Mora told the Chris Mannix channelplays the Monday morning quarterback, and talks about what Dmitri Bivol should have done against Artur Beterbiev.
“Monsters don’t like backups. When you corner them and back them up, they don’t like it,” Mora said.
Non-stop clinch would have been useless as a game plan for Bivol as he could not handle the short punches of the much stronger Beterbiev. If Bivol had a steel chin, the spoiler tactics that Bradley and Sergio Mora advised him to use might have worked. He did not and was not willing to be bowled over by Beterbiev’s powerful shots.
“I still think Bivol did enough to win this battle. I thought the scorecards were wrong. At worst I thought Bivol deserved a draw, but I thought he won handily,” said Mora. “The punches that were landed in the second half of the fight were landed on the gloves.”
The punches that Beterbiev landed on Bivol’s gloves were taking effect in his head, and he was affected. Many of the blows Beterbiev hit Bivol connected with his chin and the side of his head. They are not blocked. Had Bivol not been hit by Beterbiev’s shots, he would have fought more aggressively in rounds 6 through 12.
“They didn’t penetrate the guard and knock Dmitri Bivol’s head back,” Mora said. “So, I couldn’t give him full credit because they hit gloves. I didn’t give him credit and rounds for the punches that landed on his gloves.
“I gave Bivol credit for defense and ring generalship and didn’t let Beterbiev get his combinations off. I don’t see how the judges gave the decision to Beterbiev,” Mora said.
 was){kind=link}