Gareth A. Davies saw unified light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev “bullying” Dmitry Bivol during portions of the later rounds to get the victory by a 12-round majority decision last Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Where Bivol made a huge mistake by playing it safe in the 12th round, moving and holding Beterbiev, Dmitry acted like he had the win in the bag already and wanted to coast to ensure he didn’t get knocked out. In hindsight, that was a big mistake.
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) says he wasn’t tired in the final three rounds from the 10th, but rather he was trying to be “perfect” while being shelled unceasingly by Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs). What Bivol means by being “perfect” can be translated as being elusive to escape the bombardment. He was trying to neutralize Beterbiev’s offense but forgot that he needed to engage to win the 10, 11 and 12th rounds.
Bivol was retreating under fire, and not throwing much back in the final three rounds, and getting the stuffing beaten out of him by Beterbiev. Pro-Bivol fans claim that he was blocking Beterbiev’s shots and making his miss. That’s not what was happening. He was getting hit plenty by Beterbiev and looked like he was trying to save his hide.
“I had Beterbiev winning the second half of the fight, apart from the ninth round. Bivol [won] probably the first four, but the fourth round was a bit of a tossup. I had Beterbiev commanding the other rounds,” said Gareth A. Davies to Pro Boxing Fans, giving a breakdown of his analysis of the results of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol fight.
“There were a couple of swing rounds in those seven that I gave to Beterbiev, but I gave those seven to him. His aggressive ring generalship, his tenaciousness, and the fact that Bivol was on the back foot quite a lot. I watched it back again this morning and I gave the fourth round to Bivol.
“I scored it 7-5 after watching it back closely. I just think Beterbiev did the more tenacious, aggressive work. It was a very close fight. I wouldn’t argue with a draw in those swing rounds. I liked what I saw from him. I thought he was bullying Bivol at times. I don’t think everyone agrees with that,” said Gareth.
Beterbiev did more than bully Bivol during the backstretch of the fights. He was punking him with his nonstop power punching, and making him look bad in the process.
