Should there be a asterisk on Bivols ’win’ against Beterbiev

No but there should be an axterix on beterbiev's 'win' over Bivol

 

Sour grape thread.

 

I don't think so. It's true he's been injury prone and is the much older man, but Beterbiev had a fantastic 2024. Callum Smith is arguably a career best performance, and the loss to Bivol was just a year removed from that. He did have a meniscus tear between Smith and the first Bivol fight, but to my understanding it was just the beginning of a tear and the time he took off was sufficient enough for it to heal completely, so it's not like he came into the fight with a bum knee or anything.

Kind of a controversial opinion here, but I think even if this fight had happened a few years sooner, it wouldn't have gone much differently than how it did either time. I mainly base that on his fights with Gvozdyk and Koelling. I'll echo the notion that Gvozdyk is tougher and more powerful than Bivol, but he was also more willing to toss out discipline because of his faith in those factors. Because of that, he was more willing to stand and trade, and that's ultimately what cost him in the end. In short, he ****ed around and found out, and I don't think Bivol would make that same sort of mistake. Likewise, Enrico Koelling very nearly made it the full 12 without getting stopped. Granted, he fought a pretty negative fight with next to no success, but if a guy like that can manage to nearly survive a prime Beterbiev, I think Bivol could manage the same.

Not to take away from either man's win over the other, I just think no matter when you got them in the ring we'd end up with a one point either way or draw type fight. They're just damn good dance partners. Good thing too, since it seems like they'll prolly fight again and the last thing we need is another senseless rematch.

 

Bivol won the rematch fair and square. Why does there need to be an asterisk?

 

Problem is that Beterbiev is a big PED cheat. So it confuses the issue.
As soon as it came out (after the Smith fight) that even at middle-age he had 'abnormal levels of HGH and testosterone' for a young man that was enough for me.
He has shown no signs of ageing, is barely bothered by punches and comfortably KO's everyone at a touch including tough fighters like Joe Smith and Callum Smith.
So the fact Bivol avoided that fate is somewhat impressive.
If Beterbiev was clean then I'd give Bivol no credit.

 

You mean context? There should always be context with every win. Beterbiev was not in his prime but not a fighter who was 'past it'

 

No. This is the fight every one in boxing wanted to see.

No asterisk.

Bivol went out and beat the best LHW in the whole world.

 

Beterbiev was particularly beloved by boxing hipsters and gatekeepers. They're super salty about Bivol winning.

 

And Beterbiev was roided out of his mind so I guess that evens it out.

 

He’s still 40 PED’s or not. If PED’s did all the work Mike Tyson would’ve beat Jake Paul

 

I'm glad to see a few calling artur out for his PED abuse. Many of his sycophantic fans call others out, but are quiet regarding this

Artur has more hormones in his body than bivol, so in some ways cancels out the age gap

For my money Bivol beat him twice and will go down as the greater fighter

 

There's no way in hell those stats are accurate.