His Excellency Turki Alalshikh disagreed with the decision made by the three judges for the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol fight submitted, and he wants to set up a rematch between them if they agree.
Turki felt WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) deserved the win by a few rounds. Bivol stopped fighting in rounds 10, 11 and 12. This was the difference in the contest. Beterbiev wanted more of that in the future, and the judges noticed.
A rematch would likely go worse for Bivol, as Beterbiev would have more time to strengthen his recently operated right knee, and he would have learned from this fight.
What Beterbiev showed is that in the last half of the fight Bivol caved in under his pressure, gave in and had nothing to fight him off due to his lack of strength. In the rematch, Beterbiev will push the pace of the fight right off the bat and wear Bivol down faster.
Beterbiev is likely to agree to the rematch because his options for big fights are limited. His purse for his fight tonight was rumored to be $10 million. If he can get similar money in a rematch with Bivol, he’ll take it.
The judges gave it to the IBF, WBC and WBO champion Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) by a 12 round majority decision by the scores were 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112.
It’s easy to see why. Beterbiev was the aggressor during the fight, landing the harder shots, and looked like he wanted it more in rounds 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. The last six rounds were all Beterbiev.
Bivol used his jab, short combinations and footwork to win some of the rounds in the first half of the fight. Beterbiev was too cautious in rounds one to six to win more than three. Some fans felt that Bivol had won five of the first six rounds, but that would have ignored many of the hard shots Beterbiev landed to defeat him.
“It’s one of the biggest fights I’ve seen in the last 20 years, but I don’t think the result is fair,” Turki Alalshikh told the Pounding Groundtalking about Artur Beterbiev’s win over Dmitri Bivol on Saturday night.
The judges scored the fight logically. They felt Beterbiev landed the harder, cleaner shots and showed more initiative. Bivol completely relaxed in rounds 7 to 12 when he started getting hit hard by Beterbiev. I’m not sure if that’s something Bivol can change in the rematch without getting knocked out.
“I think Bivol wins two more rounds. I don’t know why the result is like that, but I will try to do the rematch. They deserve it. If they accept, we will do it,” Turki said.
Bivol deserves a decision if you take away the superior power and clean landing shots that Beterbiev hit him with. If they both threw with the same power, Bivol deserved the win. But since Beterbiev’s punches were much harder, he was the one pushing the action, and Bivol looked stressed, you have to give Artur the win. It was still a close fight, but Beterbiev did more.
“It is up to His Excellency. He said: ‘Wrong decision. I will do the rematch,” said Eddie Hearn Charlie Parson’s Stampede grounds.
The judges made the right decision. What was wrong was Bivol’s game plan to move, jab and hold. Had he tried to fight Beterbiev in the center of the ring, it might have been a different outcome. Instead, Bivol played it safe, hoping the judges would give him a win based on his minimalist approachand he found out the hard way that they don’t appreciate that style.
