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Mike Coppinger, ESPN Boxing Insider
Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol was a fight seven years in the making, one designed — and delivered by Turki Alalshikh — to once and for all crown an undisputed light heavyweight champion and determine supremacy at 175 pounds.
The fight was also slated to, perhaps, enter a new fighter into the pound-for-pound best conversation. And while Saturday’s fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, certainly showed Beterbiev and Bivol are two of the sport’s elite, 12 rounds weren’t enough to truly separate them in a bout that lived up to the hype.
Yes, Beterbiev earned the majority decision — 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114 — but it was Bivol whom the public seemed to favor. And while boxing’s top star, Canelo Alvarez, seeks revenge against Bivol, who defeated him in May 2022, now it’s Bivol who searches for the same against Beterbiev.
“I’m aware I have to do everything perfect, and I don’t have any explanation because it could look like excuses,” said Bivol, who entered the ring as ESPN’s No. 4 pound-for-pound boxer. “… If I have this chance [for a rematch], yes. This is my dream: to be undisputed.”
Bivol, 33, seemed well on his way to achieving his dream. He was outboxing Beterbiev from the outside and frustrating him with his excellent jab and footwork. Bivol caught many of Beterbiev’s vaunted power shots on his high guard.
But that accumulation of shots, even blocked, made their impact. After all, Beterbiev, 39, entered the ring as boxing’s only champion with a 100% KO percentage. Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) won the final three rounds on all three judges’ scorecards to pull out the decision and left Bivol with a badly damaged left eye.
“He is powerful, very powerful,” said Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs). “And you see I have a bruise from my hand [blocking punches]. He always beat it, and it was so hard. Even he reached my eye.”
This fight was much closer to call than Oleksandr Usyk’s undisputed heavyweight championship victory over Tyson Fury in May, which also took place in Riyadh. Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, will stage the heavyweight rematch on Dec. 21, and hopefully, he’ll move to do the same next year for Beterbiev and Bivol.
Only then can the greatest light heavyweight of this generation be decided.
Had Bivol won, a potential rematch with Canelo was an option as well as a rematch with Beterbiev. Now those plans are gone. After his victory over Edgar Berlanga in September, Canelo said Bivol “has that ability to [beat Beterbiev],” adding that he was only interested in Bivol if he won, not Beterbiev.
The last light heavyweight summit meeting was a pair of fights between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev in 2016-17. Ward, like Beterbiev, won the first fight in controversial fashion. Ward left no doubt in the rematch with an eighth-round TKO.
Now, boxing fans — along with Beterbiev and Bivol — need clarity, too, as they both head to the Hall of Fame when it’s all said and done.
“I wanted to box today with more quality,” Beterbiev said. “I don’t know why, but I didn’t like this fight. But I’ll be better one day. … If His Excellency [Alalshikh] wants [the rematch], then we can do it.”