Dmitry Bivol refused to make excuses following his loss to Artur Beterbiev on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Still, several former and current world champions didn’t hold back with their criticism of the split decision that gave the latter the undisputed light heavyweight championship.
Despite seemingly outboxing Beterbiev for about eight of the 12 rounds, Beterbiev won the fight with one judge scoring it 116-112 in his favor.
Former welterweight champion Shawn Porter says he scored the fight 116-112 for Bivol, which is also the score I had.
Former undisputed light heavyweight champion Andre Ward didn’t give a score, but he did say he believed Bivol won the fight. Ward also explicitly called out the scorecard, with Beterbiev winning 116-112.
Former 140-pound champion Josh Taylor gave props to Beterbiev and Bivol for a “great fight,” but he also saw the fight for the latter.
Former cruiserweight champion and UK legend Tony Bellew scored the fight for Bivol, and he identified the last few rounds as keys for Beterbiev escaping with the decision.
Current WBC lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson simply said, “boxing is terrible,” in his critique of the scoring.
His previous post had the scores for Beterbiev, followed by a laughing emoji.
This kind of scoring has to be extremely disheartening to a fighter like Stevenson. He is a pure boxer, and the game plan to stick and move that Bivol exhibited against the hard-punching Beterbiev is similar to a style Stevenson might employ against an opponent like Gervonta Davis.
If this is how his fight will be judged, it puts pure boxers in a tough position.
Bivol’s jab, one-two combinations, and occasional left hooks were the punches that seemingly controlled the fight.
That said, there was no question that Beterbiev’s power and strength were a factor. He seemed to wear Bivol down at the end of the fight, thus winning the 11th and 12th rounds on my scorecard.
He won the 10th, 11th and 12th round on all three judges cards. If he’d won just one of the final three rounds on all three judges’ cards, the fight would have been a majority draw, and he’d still be the WBA light heavyweight champion.
While he’s not a world champion, boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh said he didn’t think the decision was fair. He felt the fight should have been scored 115-113 for Bivol.
Because Alalshikh is the man most responsible for the card and most high-profile fights we’ve seen in boxing over the past year, there is a good chance we’ll see a rematch at some point.
As another world champion, Devin Haney, said, the fight was close, so there was no robbery.
However, I believe there is enough criticism from dignified members of the boxing community to run this one back. Here is a look at all the results from the IV Crown Showdown card in Riyadh.
- Artur Beterbiev defeats Dmitry Bivol via majority decision (116-112, 115-113, 114-114) to win the undisputed light heavyweight championship.
- Fabio Wardley def. Frazer Clarke via first-round KO British heavyweight championship
- (c) Jai Opetaia defeats Jack Massey via 6th-round TKO – IBF cruiserweight championship
- Chris Eubank Jr. defeats Kamil Szeremeta via 7th-Round TKO
- (c) Skye Nicolson defeats Raven Chapman via unanimous decision – 99-91, 98-92(x2) – WBC featherweight title
- Ben Whittaker vs. Liam Cameron – Technical Draw
