Teddy Atlas says he doesn’t see that the fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol was a hack as some people have suggested their uncontested light heavyweight fight last Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The fans, especially Bivol’s team, criticized the results of the fight. They think that Bivol should have won in a big way even though they did very little in the second half. Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn insists that Bivol should have won 8-4.
How the War Was Lost
He was adamant that Bivol should have won and revealed that they have appealed this decision to the four sanctions organizations to force a rematch with Beterbiev. Bivol was arrested when Beterbeig got his case into gear and was no different from his previous opponents.
The only difference was Bivol’s kicking to escape a hard fight to save his skin, hoping to win a decision based on his early work. Bivol stopped the fight after the fourth round, and it was a long painful retreat, taking the fire from his sides.
The judges deemed Beterbiev to have done enough to win with the following points:
– 114-114
– 115-113
– 116-112
Atlas, who has been involved in boxing for many years, felt that former WBA champion Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) landed a good punch in the first round, beating IBF, WBC and WBO veteran Beterbiev (21) -0, 20 KOs).
However, halfway through the race, Beterbiev started his offense, and once that happened, he didn’t let his foot off the gas. He kept attacking Bivol, 33, clinging to him like a “cheap suit,” giving him no relief from stress.
“If he takes you down a hill, you end up going down; he continued to throw them [punches] as he steps,” Tedy Atlas said on his channel, talking about how Artur Beterbiev took the fight against Dmitry Bivol as he built up his case in the middle of the rounds.
“He stomps and punches you, so you don’t get any relief,” Atlas continues of how Beterbiev followed Bivol who was retreating from the ring, beating him and not letting him escape in the second round. “He lives with you, and he follows you. He sticks to you like glue. You can’t take him away from you.”
Atlas perfectly sums up how Beterbiev turned the fight around in the sixth round with his offense and Bivol’s relentless pressure. Beterbiev tore through Bivol’s shins, blocking or absorbing shots and landing powerful short punches to the head.
In the tenth round, Beterbiev landed a right hand to Bivol’s body, causing him to shrink like a tire. After that punch, the injured Bivol looked shocked. It was as if a grizzly bear was chasing him in the forest, and he could not run away from the beast, which repeatedly hit him with a gun on the head and body, tormenting him.
CompuBox Final Punch Statistics:
- Beterbiev: 137 to 682 thrown for a 20% connection rate.
- Bivol: 142 of 423 for 34%
What those stats don’t show is the power of the punches Beterbiev was connecting with and their impact on Bivol. Beterbiev’s punch wore Bivol down like an old clock, leaving him powerless, injured, and too tired to do anything more than run around the ring.
Bivol took the hammer in rounds 10, 11, and 12, taking punishment from Beterbiev without much throwing. In the 12th round, Bivol came out with a wink, holding it around the ring.
He surrendered to Beterbiev, and it was sad to watch because he had been very vocal before the fight about what he was doing in the tournament. But when the going gets tough, he surrenders and doesn’t like to go out with his shield like a soldier in battle.
Bivol would not even humble himself after the fight saying that he deserved to make this decision because he knew that he faded under the pressure of Beterbiev and he would not open a case for his loss. However, Bivol should have told Hearn to lay low and not make his team look like poor losers afterwards by complaining about the result. It looked awful with the way Hearn’s stomach growled after the fight and continued to moan days later.
Hearn made his star Bivol look bad by cutting him down after the fight, showing that he was very salty about the loss and unwilling to take the high road to show quality.
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