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

Scorecards were actually extremely good for once.

 

Your point is, he would have to be well ahead after 9 because he lost the last 3 rounds. The 11th was the most one-sided out of the last 3. From memory the 12th was closer but still a pretty clear Artur round. The 10th maybe was more arguable for Bivol. It seemed that Artur's corner lit a fire under him after the 10th.

 

Guy representing Bivol in conference...get over yourself bro. Ultra close fight. GTFO

 

Turki said "wrong decision, we'll do the rematch"... righto then lol

 

The judges need to get out of the country ASAP

 

Different opponent, sure, but just looking at how Bivol performed, his fitness levels, his stamina, etc. Which was the better performance? Has Bivol slowed down? I'm not taking anything away from Beterbiev, certainly Beterbiev pushed Bivol harder than Canelo did, wore him down more. Though Canelo landed the more flashy eye catching shots on Bivol. Beterbiev pounded him with thudding shots that hit mostly gloves. Canelo managed to land better shots on Bivol in the early rounds, where as Beterbiev did the most of his damage in the later rounds.

 

Bivol has been my #1 favorite fighter of the past several years & I expected him to win this fight outright, but his performance tonight was a major disappointment in my eyes. He looked jittery from the opening bell, & although he often landed the cleaner, flashier flurries, he failed to sustain a consistent offense & his flurries became increasingly too few or far between as the fight progressed.

On the flipside, Beter proved to me that he's 1 of the most deceiving fighters in recent memory. He doesn't appear to do anything particularly flashy or fancy, but he made his strength & power felt against even 1 of the classiest boxers in the sport & effectively shut him down in the late rounds. Ultimately I felt there were far too many close/indecisive rounds to argue w/ a decision either way.

 

lol Turki doesn't agree with Allah. That's a bit surprising. I do appreciate Turki having the guts to speak his mind, disagreeing with the decision in his own country.

 

I had him 6-3 up after 9. Like most scorers.

 

Turki does know **** about boxing. Good for him.

 

I think it wasn't a matter of stamina, but Bivol becomin' more and more gunshy as Artur's corner suggested to KO him in order to avoid any doubts on the scorecards and with that advice, Artur pressure became more and more prominent winning him the championship rounds. That's what idk how Bivol will deal with in the rematch.
And even by landing cleaner shots, trying to bother his lead hand like he always does, Canelo simply doesn't hurt like Beter or has the firepower to keep light-heavies away from him.

 

Eddie Hearn fighters aren't winning many in riyadh season.

 

Agree 100%. Bivol was doing a lot more movement than usual. But it was quite good and effective and Bivol was timing him well when they did exchange. When Bivol did open up he landed some great combos which had to win him many rounds. But maybe the judges were seeing him on the backfoot too much, not engaging, and Artur looking to make the fight.

It did seem like Bivol was going to win when they were about to announce the scores, with the 116-112 especially, but it wasn't to be. I agree that a draw would have been very fair here. But imagine if an Undisputed title fight was a draw. Fans would be upset at that simply because it was a draw. It probably would have been better for a rematch if Bivol won, because then it would force Artur to take more risks and press the action more. Then again now it's Bivol that has to do more in the rematch which could put him in danger. We'll see.

 

No, that counts for him. Punching and not landing is better than not punching at all.