Dmitry Bivol says he waited too much for ‘perfect’ moments against Artur Beterbiev

Dmitry Bivol has had a little time to watch and reflect on his loss to Artur Beterbiev last Saturday in a fight for the undisputed light heavyweight championship.

And he sees what he should have done differently – not just in this fight but also in case he gets to step into the ring with Beterbiev again for a rematch.

“I want to improve more with my movements. I didn’t move enough,” Bivol said in an interview with Marcos Villegas of FightHub one day after suffering his first defeat. “I felt I had to move more. More counterpunches. I just need to add more. I felt some moments where I could do it, but I was a little bit careful.”

Both Beterbiev and Bivol felt that they could have done better.

For Beterbiev, 21-0 (20 KOs), he retained his undefeated record and added the fourth and final major world title to his collection, but he was taken the distance for the first time and was awarded a close decision that many feel could have gone either way.

For Bivol, 23-1 (12 KOs), he lost for the first time, lost the world title he had held for years and lost on the scorecards despite thinking he may have done enough to win.

Instead of making excuses, Bivol searched for potential areas of improvement.

“I felt I had good episodes. He had good episodes,” Bivol said. “But I didn’t count how many episodes I did; is it enough for win or not? In my philosophy, I’m a warrior and everything should be perfect. Everything what I’m doing, I have to do it well or I shouldn’t do it at all. This fight, I didn’t do well. Maybe it’s enough to be winner. Maybe it’s not enough. But I didn’t do it perfect, how I want to do it.”

In particular, there were the final three rounds of the 12-round bout.

The fight was on the line at the time, though of course the fighters don’t know how the judges actually had it. Going into the 10th round, one judge had Bivol up 87-84, one judge had Bivol up 86-85 and one judge had Beterbiev ahead 86-85.

Beterbiev swept those final three rounds, leaving us with the final scores of 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112. Had Bivol won just one of those rounds, the fight would have been a split draw: 115-113 for Bivol, 114-114 and 115-113 for Beterbiev. Had Bivol won two of those rounds, the result would have been a majority decision in his favor.

Instead, Bivol epitomized a cliche: He let perfect be the enemy of good. He was waiting for the right openings from Beterbiev rather than Bivol just opening up with his own offense. According to CompuBox, Beterbiev went 46 of 205 in those final three rounds while Bivol was a mere 38 of 99. Bivol was more accurate but less active, and the judges favored what Beterbiev was throwing and how clean and hard they perceived Beterbiev as landing.

“I didn’t do these three rounds perfect. I was just trying to find perfect moment,” Bivol said. “I was trying, but I couldn’t. I just had to act. Not just waiting. I just had to act, but I didn’t. Maybe I wasn’t sure it’s right moment, but the time passed very fast, to be honest. Every round for me was like one minute.”

So Bivol knows what to do if the rematch comes to fruition. But as he said, having a strategy is one thing, while implementing it is another – especially when facing a capable opponent.

“I knew before how to beat him, you know? And he knew, also, how to beat me,” Bivol said. “But I think all fans in front of the TV, they know how to beat him and how to beat me. It’s the easiest part to know, but the hardest part to do it.”

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.