Dmitry Bivol’s promoter Eddie Hearn sounded like a classic example of a sore loser after his 12-round majority decision loss to unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev last Saturday night in Riyadh. He struggled to understand what happened to his fighter Bivol, who crumbled under the pressure of the tough Beterbiev in their clash.
Matchroom boss Hearn had in mind that Bivol won 8-4 and was shocked to see him lose. It seemed clear what had happened. Once Bivol started getting hit hard by Beterbiev in the seventh, he stopped fighting and ran the last five rounds, losing. Bivol was scared and in need.
Any judge could see that Bivol had given up mentally. Instead of Hearn crying about the judge scoring it 116-112, he should be praising him for doing a great job.
Beterbiev ruined Canelo’s big plans for Bivol
Hearn says he wants the judge who scored the fight 116-112 for Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) to never work another fight. Obviously, Bivol’s loss ruins Hearn’s hopes of a fight against Canelo Alvarez that would have been in play had he won.
The Canelo-Bivol rematch would have raked in the sweet dough and brought in untold riches. Instead, Bivol has his first loss, and his career looks shaky, so he must try to avenge the loss. It doesn’t look good.
A rematch could be much worse for Bivol, with him likely to be knocked out by Beterbiev. If Bivol loses to Beterbiev again, he will be a useless ballast for Hearn, who won’t be able to do much with him other than use him as a B-player to fight David Benavidez, David Morrell or Joshua Buatsi .
Interestingly, the score of 116-112 that Hearn believed was the same score that many fans on social media had for Beterbiev, who took a tired and hurt Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) in the latter half of the action last night at the Kingdom Arena.
“How can we forget what just happened in the ring? Do we want to forget in one of the biggest fights of our generation and in the most important fight of Bivol’s life you give him four rounds? It’s absolutely disgusting,” said Eddie Hearn Matchroom Boxingtalking about the judge who scored Beterbiev against Bivol 116-112 for Artur.
Hearn needs to look at Bivol to see if he wants to blame someone because he gave up the ship after the seventh round and was nowhere to be seen in the championship rounds. Whatever fight Bivol had in him, it was gone at the midpoint.
The 33-year-old Bivol abandoned ship and let Beterbiev board and take command. Bivol looked like he wanted no part in the fight against Beterbiev after being hit with a flurry of booming head shots in the middle rounds. Bivol looked physically older than Beterbiev in the championship rounds, and showed no heart.
“They knew Artur Beterbiev lost this fight,” Hearn said of Beterbiev’s corner. “The highest rank knew Beterbiev had lost this fight. Then word came that Artur Beterbiev had won a majority decision. I am absolutely stunned and disgusted by the scorecard of 116-112. 115-113, I don’t like it,” Hearn said.
What on earth is Hearn babbling about? Top Rank didn’t think Beterbiev lost. They knew he had done his job, hit Bivol with a couple of giant shots that sent him running and took off. Hearn cannot accept that the better man beat his fighter Bivol.
“8-4 for Dmitry Bivol,” Hearn said of how he scored the fight, giving his fighter Bivol the victory by a round margin of 116-112 over Beterbiev. “He (Bivol) boxed in beautifully tonight. I don’t want to disrespect Beterbiev, but Bivol should be the undisputed champion tonight, and that judge should never work again,” Hearn said of the judge who scored Beterbiev 8-4.
“Four rounds of a fight of this magnitude is disgusting. I’m not saying it was a runaway victory or a landslide for Dmitry Bivol. Nobody let Artur Beterbiev win that fight. I didn’t even hear a draw. Beterbiev was deflated. They knew they had lost the battle.
“It was such a beautiful fight to watch. Dmitri was so smart. He got hurt a few times. He hurt Beterbiev a few times. He took on the gloves so much. All the marks around here (on Bivol’s face). You could see that it was by the mesh on his belt.
“He just boxed a beautiful fight in a tough fight. When you get an opportunity like that and box like that and not get the decision, it really hurts,” Hearn said.
I don’t know how Hearn can keep a straight face talking about how Bivol boxed a beautiful fight when he ran from Beterbiev after tasting his power in the seventh round.
