Why did anyone give Arthur the 3rd rd.?

Take emotion out of this man. It's a boxing fight that is very clearly close and subjective which is why it is split so divisively.

Neither of these men are household names, so no one has any bias in the situation.

This is two elite boxers who fought an elite level fight. No one has to convince the other what each round should be scored.

Remove the emotions and embrace the subjective nature of the sport.

You scored this round 10-9 Bivol, good for you. I scored this round 10-9 Beterbiev, good for me.

 

Round 3 was one of 2 things I thought was pretty inexplicable and off with the judges cards

• ALL THREE Judges scored Round 3 it for Beterbiev - whilst Artur was starting to work more and get to grips with Bivols movement and ability to reset him, it was 100% a clear Bivol round, he controlled the majority of the round, landed more and better shots
• Glen Feldman gave the 9th round to Beterbiev - now this one is beyond the pale; wtf was he watching as to me the 9th round was clearly Bivol's best round in the fight! I though Artur was starting to run out of gas, and Bivol just dominated that round with great shot selection, counters and crisp combinations. Round 9 was NOT CLOSE.

Those are the big 2 things from the judges cards that struck me, and it's worth bearing in mind:-

If Feldman had scored round 9 to Bivol the result would have been a Majority Draw.
If even 2 of the 3 judges had scored Round 3 to Bivol it would have been a split decision to Bivol

Fine margins indeed!

 

I mean, you are clearly biased towards your fighter or have no clue how a fight should be scored.

Betetbiev fans really exposed themselves on this one, AB winning this fight looks more criminal with every passing day.

116-112 is a robbery
115-113 is criminal

As I said before, you will have a hardtime finding 1min of high lights where AB lands clean on Bivol before the 9th round, I don't think he did.

How can you score 10-9 to your guy if he doesn't land any punches?

 

I think that's a going too far the other way though, let's not get carried away! If you want folks to take you seriously why lambasting someone as being a fan with bias, pot meet kettle? Beterbiev started to work harder in the 4th and he won the 5th round clear, with solid jabs and bodywork (with the bodywork being cleaner IMO). I also had Beterbiev winning the 6th round as well, but that was closer with Bivol doing the cleaner work but sporadic, and my recollection was that Beterbiev was 'having his way' more.

I never rewatch a fight immediately and give it a few days to settle first, but will deffo be doing a "scoring rewatch" in next 2 days

 

Rounds are not scored on a punches landed basis. At least not in pro boxing.

 

Yes, it was clear Bivol round - although I'll be honest and admit I scored it to Arthur while watching it live. I misjudged that final exchange - and I'm pretty sure the same thing happend to the judges. It wasn't so obvious in real-time and Bivol was the one pushed back, so it looked that some things that landed on his arms might've hit him.

I still ended up giving the fight to Beterbiev, though.

 

I always go with the logic of him not doing as bad as they did in the previous rounds so we give him one out of pity.

 

Part of it is in the spirit of charity. If we feel Bivol got the first two but the third is close, there is a greater urge to give it to Beterbiev. The same thing happened with the third round of Usyk-Fury. When watching it live there was an urge to give it to Fury. On the rewatch it was Usyk's. I would however like to couch this by saying that, when you have to start picking out certain rounds to feed a consensus, it only highlights that this was a close fight that neither man put beyond dispute.

 

Fascinating that you now see a clear Bivol round but initially scored it to Artur live. Props to you for your honesty about your evolution on how you view the round. I think we should point out that all 3 judges scored this round to Beterbiev.

Now even if you've now upon retrospection come to the realization that Bivol won the round clearly, surely you wouldn't blame the judges for scoring it for Beterbiev live as you did, especially after the judges gave the first 2 rounds for Bivol. It's perhaps one of those situations where maybe the judges would see Artur doing better than he did in the previous 2 rounds and if you were looking for a round to give to Beterbiev you could do that. For what it's worth the Compubox in this round had Beterbiev outlanding Bivol by a single punch 13 to 12.

I think you hit on an important point though, that Bivol was the one pushed back and maybe body language would suggest that Artur was starting to impose his will on Bivol despite Bivol landing some impressive shots. The judges seeing Bivol getting pushed back and Beterbiev getting in some sustained offense would perhaps stick in the minds of the judges.

 

Aggression, ring generalship. I will go to my grave thinking that Pacquiao beat Marquez. That Hagler beat Leonard That Beterbiev beat Bivol. But I understand if a judge emphasizes clean punching over the rest of the scoring criteria then I can understand rationale.

 

I scored the fight 115-113 overall to Beterbiev, but I gave the 3rd to Bivol, that was a fairly clear Bivol round imo.

The aggregate score on BoxRec seems to suggest most people thought the same: 9.78 to Bivol, 9.18 to Beterbiev.

https://boxrec.com/en/scoring/3213264