Newly crowned undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev has mixed feelings following his majority decision win against Dmitry Bivol on Saturday.
Beterbiev started slow and closed the show strong to beat Bivol by scores of 116-112 and 115-113, while a third judge had it 114-114. Judges scored 10 of the 12 rounds the same as the busier Beterbiev landed 137 of 682 of his shots while Bivol connected with 142 of 423 of his own.
During his post-fight press conference in Saudi Arabia, Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) was not satisfied following the first decision win of his career against Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs).
“He did a good job,” said Beterbiev. “I don’t know how he measured his work as good or not, but I’m not a bad boxer. I didn’t do bad work. I only did some parts of what I prepared for and not all of the work. I don’t why.
“I’m always critical of myself. Even when I won all my previous fights by knockout, I always complained about my skills and performance. That’s why I don’t like what I did. I always want to do better.
“I needed to sleep for a couple of rounds and then wake up.
“Maybe it was my knee injury, maybe it was many things. I don’t know.
“I don’t think I’m a great boxer. But I’m not a bad boxer. It’s experience. I’m honored to become the undisputed champion.”
Beterbiev’s longtime Canadian-based coach Marc Ramsay echoed Beterbiev’s glass-half-empty sentiment as well.
“We did good,” said Ramsay. “It was not a bad performance. But we believe we can do even better. We are happy about all of the belts, but on Monday morning we need to find a new objective and challenge and keep pushing.”
While Bivol promoter Eddie Hearn, the head of Matchroom Boxing, called a foul for the 116-112 scorecard and suggested that judge Pawel Kardyn “should never work in the sport again,” Beterbiev promoter Carl Moretti, Top Rank’s vice president, thought the right guy won.
“It’s OK to have close fights either way, but it wasn’t a robbery,” said Moretti. “It was a close fight. Bivol fought great. Just look at their faces. Even though his gloves were high, something was hitting Bivol. It wasn’t a ghost. So go from there.”
Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia, staged the fight. Alalshikh said after the event that he didn’t think the result was fair, adding that he believed Bivol edged the bout seven rounds to five and that he would be focusing on negotiating for a rematch.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine and more. He has been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.
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