Dmitry Bivol boxed almost exclusively off his back foot Saturday night, but he approached his first professional defeat head on.
Bivol avoided criticizing the judges and congratulated Artur Beterbiev for winning their light heavyweight title unification fight. The former WBA champion handled his 12-round, majority-decision defeat with complete class, when Bivol obviously could’ve questioned how he lost eight rounds on the scorecard of judge Pawel Kardyni.
Poland’s Kardyni (116-112) and American Glenn Feldman (115-113) scored their closely contested championship bout for the Russian-born, Quebec-based Beterbiev. Spain’s Manuel Oliver Palomo scored Beterbiev-Bivol a draw, 114-114.
Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs), who went the distance for the first time in 11 years as a pro, retained his IBF, WBC, WBO and IBO belts by winning their main event at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs), a longtime Russia resident who entered the ring as a slight betting favorite, lost the WBA belt.
“I got this chance,” Bivol told DAZN’s Chris Mannix during his post-fight interview in the ring. “I am a warrior. I have to do everything perfect [to win]. And I don’t have any explanation, because it could look like excuses. I just [say] congratulations to Artur and his team. He deserve it – no problem. I just have time to make another decision for my future. That’s it.”
Bivol, 33, used his athleticism and boxing abilities to try to out-point the stronger Beterbiev, who pushed the action almost all fight. Though the savvy Bivol boxed well intermittently to win some rounds, his infrequent flurries didn’t impress the judges as much as the hard-hitting Beterbiev’s persistent pressure and harder punches.
Bivol managed to keep their fight near the center of the ring more often than not. The 39-year-old Beterbiev capitalized, however, whenever the action moved toward the ropes and occasionally connected with body shots that slowed down Bivol.
There weren’t any knockdowns during their bout, but Bivol acknowledged Beterbiev’s strength.
“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Bivol said. “He’s powerful, very powerful. You see I have a bruise [under my left eye] from my hand [hitting it]. He always beat it in [my face] and it was so hard.”
CompuBox’s unofficial punch stats suggested just how difficult of a fight this was to score.
Bivol landed five more punches overall, according to CompuBox (142-of-423 to 137-of-682). CompuBox credited Beterbiev for landing more power punches (90-of-306 to 84-of-168) and Bivol for connecting with more jabs (58-of-255 to 47-of-376).
Bivol led on the cards of Feldman (86-85) and Palomo (87-84) through nine rounds. The former champion then lost the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds on all three scorecards.
“You know, I don’t know,” Bivol said of the official decision. “I was just – I did my job. I felt I could make better. I always could make better. It’s just some opinion of judges. Congratulations Artur. I didn’t see the fight. He won. What I could say?”
