Beterbiev vs Bivol - how did you score it

Artur Beterbiev vs Dimitry Bivol
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Rounds Won/Even
Beterbiev - 5,6,8,10,11,12
Bivol - 1,2,4,9
Even - 3,7

Notes
A good, close fight. I had it 6-4-2 (116-114) for Beterbiev. He was the busier fighter. He landed the harder punches & took control of the fight in the 2nd half. No robbery.

 

The argument is this, bivol has a godlike round 9 where he is channeling Joe louis's and Ali's mutant prodigal child, then he takes his foot off the gas, AB looked more dominant in the last 3 rounds, he also was in this fight til then, Bivol won the majority of the rounds but the puncher was never out of this fight, round 11 and a very disputed round 12 prove this.

A case for a draw is ok if this was a regular title challenge and Bivol was challenging, but never an AB victory, as it is an undisputed fight I think the guy who landed the cleaner more damaging punches should've won, Bivol (go look at all the violent trades happening in until the 8th and 9th round, Bivol wins them all)

This said, how throwback is artur? The guy should be fighting 15 round fights only, I also underrated Arturs chin, Bivol cracked him with some very crisp shots, in one of the early rounds where Bivol committed too much after getting the best out of the violent explosive exchange, AB just snaps and comes right back with murderous straights, which Bivol still manages to just avoid not getting bulldozzered by.

They should do the rematch, AB for the first time in the post fight mentioned how his knee affected him in the fight, I fully believe him, he strikes as the kind who thinks being robbed is God's plan given his amateur history, and that mentioning injuries are excuses for gay men

 

On initial viewing I had it even, but wasn't really concentrating on scoring tbh.

Bivol - 1,2,3,7,8,9
Beterbiev - 4,5,6,10,11,12

On my initial viewing I feel like these rounds were fairly clear to me based on my perception at the time, but I think 3,4,7,8 & 12 were all pretty close and could have gone either way depending on what you favour

 

Alright, first off, let me say this: i didn’t really have a favorite going into the fight. i like both bivol and beterbiev, so this is just me calling it how i saw it.

Now, let’s break it down:

1. Punches/effective shots: man, bivol was landing those clean, sharp punches all night. his speed and accuracy were on point. beterbiev’s power is real, but bivol was tagging him more often and cleaner.
   winner: bivol

1. Ring control : beterbiev was the guy pushing the action. he stayed in the center, ctting off the ring, and kept coming forward.bivol was on the back foot a lot, so beterbiev gets this one.
   winner: beterbiev
   
   
2. Defense: bivol’s defense was slick. he was slipping punches, moving well, and didn’t let beterbiev land as much as he usually does. bivol just looked sharper defensively.
   winner: bivol
   
   
3. Aggression: no surprise here, beterbiev was the aggressor from start to finish.he’s a wrecking ball and kept the pressure on,even if he didn’t land every punch.
   winner: beterbiev
   
   
4. Clean technique/sportmansship: bivol fought cleaner, technically speaking. beterbiev’s aggression sometimes got a bit wild, but bivol stayed disciplined throughout.
   
   
5. Bivol 3 : Beterbiev 2
   
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   Bivol

So, all in all, it’s close, but if we’re scoring based on those factors, it’s bivol 3:2 beterbiev. Blvol just outworked him with precision and defense, but beterbiev's raw power and pressure kept it competitive.

 

ABiev won the 4th, 6th, 10,11,12. And I feel most of those were really just rounds Bivol was taking off.

DB was clearly the better fighter on the night.

 

115-113 Beterbiev

 

I mentioned this in another post, but IMO folks need to separate that fact that whilst Arturs punches that were hitting Bivol's gloves were not clean or scoring shots, the WERE effective, as when Beterbiev was more active and throwing, he was pushing Dmitry back, and disrupting his jab and his "1/2 reset" formula which was in turn disrupting Artur early.

In 4-6 and 10-12 especially, when Beterbiev upped his workrate, even though not catching Bivol with much clean (although there were some really clean and meaty bodyshots!), Bivol was not active because he was dealing with Arturs offense - being defensively sound, in the main - but from an optics point of view, especially in the championship rounds it fed the narative that Beterbiev wanted it more, and was willing to walk through fire to get those belts.

Even in the post fight interview, Bivol conceded that instead of shelling up and looking for the perfect clean shots, he should have been jabbing and doing more work to stifile Arturs offense.

None of this takes away the fact that Bivol boxed beautifully in spells, tagging Artur with great clean shots, having the last work in many of the exchanges, and Artur really had to dig deep and push his workrate hard to turn the fight around and make Bivol as uncomfortable as he possibly could - and when it gets down to it, MANY of those non-scoring punches in the earlier rounds were effective - I'm sure Bivol was struggling to lift his arms by the end, they must be killing him today!

 

Beterbiev 8-4

I just felt he took over at the midway point and Bivol was totally unable to keep Beterbiev off him.

Bivol fought an amazing fight and landed his best shots, but he couldn't halt the momentum of Beterbiev who was a master ring general, his aggression was very clearly effective and for me he landed the better shots, consistently.

That being said the middle rounds were very tough to score so I don't really have an issue with those who think Bivol got the nod.

It's conceivable to me that after ten rounds someone had it 8-2 to Bivol and so finished with a 8-4 scorecard in favour of Bivol.

But I can't understand those who believe vehemently it's a robbery. How anyone can claim Beterbiev could not be scored 7 rounds in this fight is beyond me. He beat Bivol up.

 

I think a draw was fitting.

 

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Bivol 8-4, 7-5. Worst case scenario is a draw.