Promoter Eddie Hearn was in loser’s denial after watching his fighter, WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs), get beaten by IBF, WBC and WBO champion Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) by 12 . round majority decision Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Bivol gave away his chances to win by running from laps 4 to 12. Beterbiev made the fight, being the aggressor, showing that he wanted it more.
If Beterbiev hadn’t come forward, the fight would have looked like an amateur contest, because that’s the approach Bivol used. He didn’t fight with a pro style, and the judges couldn’t give him the decision to not sit on his punches like Beterbiev was.
The judges’ scores:
– 114-114
– 115-113
– 116-112
I watched the fight, and I scored it 9-3 for Beterbiev, considering he landed the harder punches in each round and was on the attack. Bivol just jabbed, moved, bumped and held.
If Hearn wants to blame anyone, he should direct his anger at Bivol for not fighting with aggression and letting Beterbiev dominate the entire second half of the fight. Bivol was MIA, missing in action in the last three rounds, 10, 11 and 12. Once he felt Beterbiev’s power, Bivol wanted nothing to do with fighting. He was on the move, making sure not to get lightened by Beterbiev, which happened every time he would stop.
It didn’t look like Beterbiev was throwing hard, but his punches would have an impressive impact. Bivol’s head was shaken from the shots.
Hearn was salty to see Bivol lose because he needed the win to get the mega-millions out of a rematch against Canelo Alvarez. Losing to Beterbiev wiped out the possibility of a second fight against the Mexican star, leaving Bivol in a situation where Hearn needs His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to set up a rematch with Beterbiev.
Bivol did absolutely nothing for the last seven rounds of the fight after being hit hard by a volley of punches from Beterbiev in the sixth. He angered Beterbiev by unleashing a flurry of shots on him in that round. After that series it was all downhill for Bivol because of Beterbiev.
“It’s a joke. They (Beterbiev’s trainers) knew in the tenth round. They said, ‘You have to knock him out to win this fight,’” Eddie Hearn said Fight Hub TVin response to his fighter Dmitri Bivol’s loss to Artur Beterbiev. “They all stand in the corner; the battle is over. I’m in Bivol’s corner, and they (Beterbiev’s trainers) are looking around (frowning).
“How can you score that fight 8-4 to Artur Beterbiev? Unbelievable. Terrible decision. Hopefully His Honor will do the decent thing and give Bivol a rematch. It was a master class performance in an incredible fight. I don’t want to disrespect Artur Beterbiev because he’s an incredible champion, but he didn’t win that fight. Dmitry Bivol won that fight,” Hearn said.
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