A bitter Eddie Hearn insists there needs to be a rematch between his fighter Dmitry Bivol and undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev after their contest last Saturday night in Riyadh.
Bivol getting an immediate rematch works for Hearn, as his fighter gets a second chance, but it doesn’t work for fans. Bivol, the former WBA champion, made the fight boring with his movement, and he’s already said he plans on using even more in the rematch.
Beterbiev has many more exciting fight options than fighting Bivol again, who has already said that he plans on turning the rematch into another track meet. In this modern era of boxing, fans want to be entertained, and Bivol fails to do that with his archaic, safety-first approach.
To provide value for the fans, Beterbeiv should focus on fighting exciting fighters who actually come to fight. Bivol doesn’t do that, and he never has. Beterbiev should focus on fighting one of the Big Four:
- David Benavidez
- Canelo Alvarez
- David Morrell
- Joshua Buatsi
Bivol To Use More Movement in Rematch
The Hearn-promoted Bivol has already tipped fans off to how the rematch will play out by saying he thinks he should have used even more movement to prevent Beterbiev from hitting him.
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) made the fight with unified three-belt 175-lb champion Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOIs) boring to watch for fans by choosing not to engage and moving around the ring for 12 tedious rounds.
Most would agree that the fight failed to live up to expectations, and Beterbiev was not to blame. Bivol’s Shakur-esque fighting style made it extremely dull to watch, and it was not entertaining.
Hearn feels that his fighter, former WBA 175-lb champion Bivol, was given the shaft by the judges and should have won. The judges felt that Beterbiev was the one who did the better work with his power shots and the pressure that he was applying in the last half.
The scores
– 114-114
– 115-113
– 116-112
“To find a judge that scored that fight 116-112 and give Dmitry Bivol four rounds in that fight, this judge should never work in this fight again,” said Eddie Hearn to talkSport Boxing, complaining about the judge that scored it 8-4 in Artur Beterbiev’s favor against Dmitry Bivol. “There has to be a rematch because there’s always going to be the controversy about that fight.”
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