Disappointing, he was getting hit and was sloppy. I favor Beterbiev after seeing that performance…Beterbiev’s power will humble Bivol.
Well he scored his 1st KO in 6 years, so it was impressive part. However, Zinad is very limited, robotic C-level opponent and Bivol must be much more careful against Betterbiev
Bivol was not even close to his capabilities and he did not want to expose himself to risk, he could have finished Zinad earlier, but he decided to have some rounds, test him and finish him...
4/10 Disappointed. Zinad was better than I thought he’d be and even got the better of the jab exchanges. Dunno why he didn’t attack more with combinations, or just mixing up his shot selections, no hooks, no uppercuts, no sharpshooters to the body. Back to Bivol, even the stoppage was disappointing, landing all those clean shots and still not able to put Zinad down.
Very good - 9/10 Displayed his excellent boxing skills, before aggressively "turning it up" and impressively stopping a young, undefeated hard-punching opponent. Bivol doesn't have a lot of power and he's actually a small light-heavyweight - but he has undeniably superb boxing skills.
I would say it wasn't the best performance due to complacency, however there is nothing to worry about going forward. Against Beterbiev he will be much more defensively aware.
Good performance if it wasn't anyone but Bivol, he got hit a lot more than I'm used to seeing. But in the end he was training for Beterbiev then had to adjust due to the change of opponent so it's understandable that his performance wasn't as polished as normal.
He looked like he was on cruise control for most of the fight until he decided to turn it up. As soon as he got out of first gear he quickly ended it. Decent performance but I think it had more to do with Bivol not prepared for a totally different style after Beterbiev pulled out, which is understandable. At least he scored a stoppage. He’ll be much more ready when he faces Beterbiev. That’s still a 50/50 fight for me.
He was very good. He realized he could knock out his opponent in the first round and in the following rounds, he patiently watched for an opening to go for the knockout. And when the time came... KABOOM!
It was fine. Zinad is rangy with long arms, a very good jab and counter right hand and was an awkward stylistic match up for Bivol who had to be mindful of that right hand counter Zinad was looking to catch him with and did catch him with a number of times. I was expecting Zinad to be less predictable and throw the right uppercut but to be fair he was doing better with just the jab and right hand than most of Bivol's opponents do with all of the punches in their arsenal.
