Promoter Eddie Hearn was in loser denial after watching his fighter, WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs), get beaten by IBF, WBC, and WBO champ Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) by a 12 round majority decision on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Bivol gave away his chances of winning by running from rounds 4 through 12. Beterbiev made the fight, being the aggressor, showing that he wanted it more.
If not for Beterbiev coming forward, the fight would have resembled an amateur contest because that’s the approach Bivol used. He wasn’t fighting with a pro style, and the judges couldn’t give him the decision wasn’t sitting down on his punches the way 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 shots in every round and was on the attack. Bivol was just jabbing, moving, shoving, and holding.
If Hearn wants to blame anyone, he needs to direct his anger at Bivol because he didn’t fight with aggression and let 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 he didn’t get lit up by Beterbiev, which was happening 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 up from the shots.
Hearn was salty seeing Bivol lose because he needed the victory to get the mega-millions from a rematch against Canelo Alvarez. Losing to Beterbiev erased 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 from the last seven rounds of the fight after getting hit hard with a salvo of punches from Beterbiev in the sixth. He angered Beterbiev by unloading a storm of shots on him in that round. After that sequence, it was all downhill for Bivol because of Beterbiev.
“It’s a joke. They [Beterbiev’s coaches] knew in the tenth round. They said, ‘You have to knock him out to win this fight,’” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV, reacting to his fighter Dmitry Bivol’s loss to Artur Beterbiev. “They’re all standing in the corner; the fight is over. I’m in Bivol’s corner, and they’re [Beterbiev’s trainers] looking around like this [frowning].
“How can you score that fight 8-4 to Artur Beterbiev? Unbelievable. Terrible decision. Hopefully, His Excellency will do the decent thing and give Bivol a rematch. It was a masterclass performance in an amazing fight. I don’t want to disrespect Artur Beterbiev because he’s an incredible champion, but he did not win that fight. Dmitry Bivol won that fight,” said Hearn.
