Credit – Richard Pelham / GettyImages
Artur Beterbievs victory over Dmitry Bivol by majority decision in an undisputed light heavyweight clash at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has been labelled “robbery”.
Artur Beterbiev defended his undisputed titles last night in Riyadh with a majority decision win over former teammate, Dmitry Bivol. It was a close fight to call as both fighters gave their all in the twelve round bout. Bivol started the fight off strong, winning the first 2 rounds on all three judges’ scorecards with Beterbiev winning the last three rounds on all judges’ scorecards.
One of the three judges scored the contest 114-114, while the other two judges scored the bout 115-113 and 116-112 in favour of the champion, Beterbiev.
One of the main reasons for this fight being labelled as a “robbery” is due to one of the judges who scored the contest 116-112 to the 39 year old. A score of 116-112 would mean that one of the judges only gave Dmitry Bivol four rounds of the fight with Beterbiev winning the other eight on that particular scorecard.
Dmitry Bivol is now seeking a rematch against Artur Beterbiev to settle the controversy.
Eddie Hearn was enraged after hearing Michael Buffer’s callout of the bizarre 116-112 scorecard, Hearn said, “In one of the biggest fights of our generation and in the most important fight in Dmitry Bivols’ life you give him four rounds? It’s absolutely disgusting”.
