Shawn Porter felt that Dmitry Bivol dominated Artur Beterbiev, winning a wide 8-4 score in their light heavyweight undisputed championship fight last Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Porter. said that Bivol’s movement took away Beterbiev’s offense, not allowing him to land his punches.
Porter felt that the shoeshine shots that Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) was landing were enough for him to get the majority of the rounds in the fight. Going into the fight, Porter had predicted that Bivol would be victorious. The judges scored it 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112.
Porter didn’t factor in that Beterbiev would hurt Bivol, forcing him to run and put him in survival mode during the entire second half of the fight. He had questioned his age and his recent knee surgery going into the fight.
He figured the surgery would slow Beterbiev enough for Bivol to win, but he looked almost as good as he had in his previous fight. The only difference is that Bivol was on his bike throughout, trying to keep from getting knocked out. He accomplished that goal but still lost.
Losing a decision was better than being knocked out because Bivol now gets another payday in a rematch, which he wouldn’t have gotten if he had stood and fought Beterbiev and gotten knocked out.
“I thought Bivol fought a great fight, but you can’t win a fight of this caliber fighting moments in fights. He fought in spurts. He fought not to get knocked out. He fought to survive,” said Lionell Thompson to the Porter Way Podcast channel, talking about Dmitry Bivol fighting in survival mode in his loss to Artur Beterbiev last Saturday night.
“He tried in moments, but when Artur hit him, you could tell. Sometimes, in a close fight like this, boxing is about perception. It’s about what looks better. You saw when Artur would hit Bivol; sometimes, he would go on the run for a minute before he’d throw a punch.
“Artur was throwing and missing, but it looked like he wanted it more, and obviously the punches are doing damage because he’s on that bike and he’s holding. He’s only fighting in spurts. Bivol, I think if he had fought more, he’d have got stopped if he had fought more, and I think the judges seen that, too.
“I think he was fighting in spots and trying to steal the last few seconds of the round. You saw a lot of his punches were hitting his gloves, but a lot of Bivol’s shots were hitting Artur’s gloves, too. It looked good. It looked flashy, but that’s why Artur was able to come right back.
“I think the judges gave it to Artur because in those exchanges. When Bivol’s shots hit Artur’s gloves, he’s like, ‘Okay,’ but when Artur’s shots hit his gloves, you saw that he was on that bike, like, ‘Oh, no.’ So, when you really sit down, I had Artur winning. It was a close fight, but I think the right man won. I do want to see a rematch.”
It was obvious that the punches from Beterbiev that hit Bivol’s gloves were still causing a lot of damage to his head because he took off each time like a hot frying pan had burned him. He was not looking happy after he’d got hit.
“I had it 115-113 for Artur. I had Artur winning the last three rounds. In one round, I thought Bivol was about to cough it up. I thought it was the tenth or the eleventh. I thought he was about to cough it up,” said Lonnie B.
It was more than one round where Bivol looked close to being knocked out. There were several of them, but he survived by running away. If Beterbiev had been a little quicker at cutting off the ring on Bivol, he’d have knocked him out.
“I think that’s why the judges gave it to Artur because there were moments in the fight where Bivol was breaking mentally, and you could tell he was fighting mentally like, ‘No, I can’t quit. I can’t.’ He gets on that bike and proceeded to survive,” said Thompson.
Bivol looked like he was ready to quit in rounds 8, 10, and 11 when he was under fire by Beterbiev. In the 12th, Bivol didn’t try to fight but moved and held. He either thought he had the fight in the bag, or he was hoping to survive. Again, going the full 12 rounds meant that Bivol could get a rematch because the promoter and team would muddy the water by claiming he should have won, even if they didn’t believe it. Bivol knew he didn’t win, and that’s why he wasn’t making a fuss about his loss.
“I felt anytime he had a moment, Bivol would take that moment away from him,” said Shawn Porter. “I felt like the majority of the moments Beterbiev had, Bivol was able to take it away from him and control it and not allow him to capitalize on those moments. I had Bivol winning the fight 8-4.”
The only way Bivol was able to take the “moment away” from Beterbiev in the last five rounds was by moving, but he failed to throw punches. That was self-defeating. Bivol took the moments away from Beterbiev, but he paid the price because he lost the fight because he wasn’t throwing punches.
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