Dmitrii Yurievich Bivol vs. Artur Asilbekovich Beterbiev & Jai Opetaia vs. Jack Massey RBR.

Canelo vs Berlanga was a mismatch - enoyable? maybe, but it wasn't a patch on this fight for my entertainment value. But then I LOVE tactical chess matches. This actually had more action than I expected tbh, I think Bivol actually overcommitted a couple of times that cost him as it seemed to wake Artur up each time

 

I'm more interested in AB fighting Jai.

 

It's funny you mentioned that because I legit thought that during the fight. Bivol didn't seem as sharp as he normally does. His punches IMO didn't look like they had the same speed. There were times in the fight where it would show but not anywhere near as much as the past. So to answer your question? Maybe? Hard to say based on one fight. I will say Bivol surprised me with his lateral movement. He is usually a guy who uses more in and out movement. Maybe he felt he couldn't do that in this fight and his stamind suffered because of it. He didn't use anywhere near as much lateral movement when he fought Canelo. But at the same time, maybe Artur gets to him faster if he didn't. A rematch is intriguing to me to see how each fighter approaches it.

 

Riyadh season seems to carry some kind of curse. The favorite in the main event and set up fights either loses badly or gets embarrassed, looks underwhelming or set up fights end up going the "wrong way." Fury-Ngannou, Parker-Wilder, Usyk-Fury, Crawford-Madrimov, Padley-Chamberlain, Dubois-AJ. Only one who seemed to have subverted that was AJ, and well... seems like he used up all that good luck, to say the least

 

It is sad but even in a rematch this will draw little interest. To us boxing fan this was a fantastic matchup. Casual didnt see one knock down so they will have little interest.

 

If Beterbiev is on PEDs, then all boxers ate on peds. He trains harder than anyone and always takes care of his body. He has had no major body transformation, nor has he tested positive, unlike the face of boxing. It is unreasonable to say he is on PEDs because he punches hard, which is just a gift that some people have.

 

I don't think stats should come into it because you have to score based on what you see live. I'll say this - I saw more effective punches landed by Bivol. So I do agree that Bivol won on that metric, based on what I saw. I won't be posting my scorecard after seeing others here but I had it wayyy wide for Bivol

 

This is the only time I've agreed with you. Very close fight and the commentary was pathetic.

 

He's a ******* that Beterbiev, the way that he handled the fight, he was seriously searching for a father figure.

 

This aged fast.

 

Bivol clearly landed cleaner combinations and controlled longer stretches of the fight. I got my answers from the fight - boxing corrupt business machinery and jusges be damned.

 

Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis would feel a strange pang of empathy that they couldn't quite place.

 

I think this might have some insight into things - even though he boxed beautifully at times, I felt Bivol was nervous in the walk and at the start, and I wonder if the nerves and perhaps intimidation factor of Artur did affect him in terms of conditioning - coupled with Artur coming on strong and working the body well. I also think maybe that was also a factor in him over commiting at some points, getting into exchanges with Artur which is not wise IMO. Ironically, I think if Bivol had stuck to what he gets criticsied for more - the 1-2 reset approach, and reduced the combinations he might have had more in the locker for the last 3 rounds