Commentator Tim Bradley says he went back and rescored last Saturday night’s clash between light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol and said the judges got it right, giving the victory to Beterbiev by a 12-round majority decision.
Bradley rejects the view that some fans, media, and promoters have labeled the outcome, calling it a robbery. People who enjoyed Bivol’s hit and don’t get-hit style felt that it was a robbery, as he had done a good job of moving for 12 rounds to avoid getting hit often by Beterbiev. However, what Bivol forgot to do was throw punches and engage.
He was so focused on not getting hit that he ignored his offense and gave away the fight in the second half. One of the salty promoters, unable to take defeat with a stiff upper lip, even called for one of the judges to never work a fight again because of his 116-112 score in Beterbiev’s favor.
The number of connected punches between Beterbiev and Bivol was almost the same. The only difference was, Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) landed the much harder shots, and was the aggressor throughout.
Bivol stopped fighting and was on the run from the sixth round after getting hit hard by Beterbiev. The face of Bivol’s was marked up and he had a bad bruise on his left eye.
“Those touching shots were doing damage. Did you see the fact of Bivol?: said Tim Bradley to Probox TV, arguing that Artur Beterbiev’s shots, which didn’t look powerful, were doing damage to the fact of Dmitry Bivol.
“Judges are looking at fighter’s reactions. What happens if you don’t throw a shot for 30 seconds? You’re getting pummeled on the ropes, moving and bouncing around and looking like your hurt. That’s appealing to the judges, and some of those shots were coming through the guard [of Bivol].”
“It happened three rounds in the fight, and those were rounds that Beterbiev won. I didn’t give him much else,” said Chris Algieri, who saw Bivol as the winner.
“Those last three rounds, that’s what you saw,” said Bradley.
“Round 11, he completely gave away,” said Algieri about Bivol.
“I thought he was going to get stopped,” said Bradley, talking about the situation Bivol was in during the 11th round. “I’m sick of everyone saying ‘Highway robbery.’ This was a very close fight.”
“No one was saying highway robbery. The R-word doesn’t belong in this fight,” said Algieri.
“34 rounds, they agreed on together,” said Bradley about the three judges that worked the Beterbiev vs. Bivol fight. “That’s great judging.”
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