Firstly, I would like to make the claim that Dmitri Bivol was not robbed against Artur Beterbiev in their widely-anticipated bout that took place over the weekend.
Lets start by looking at the scorecards (scorecards are provided on BoxRec, and I will be sourcing these for analysis in this post).
Please refer to the following link for further details: https://boxrec.com/en/scoring/3213264
The scorecards read as follows: 115-114, 115-113, 116-112, but I do agree the latter is rather wide.
Fight Analysis
The aggression and ring-control from Beterbiev in the championship rounds won him the fight, that is clear.
All 3 judges had Beterbiev winning the rounds, why is this? Well, I will elaborate.
Bivol’s work rate had plummeted in these rounds, and whilst he was still defending shots using the guard by-and-large, Beterbiev had him on the ropes.
Beterbiev had cut off the ring effectively, and was able to work salvo after salvo of punches.
Many of these punches didn’t connect, but he was throwing more, and landing more in the championship rounds.
Now, had Bivol been able to maintain his work rate, his footwork/pendulum-steps to avoid being trapped and worked, he very well could have won these rounds.
There really shouldn’t have been as much as controversy in the fight’s scoring then what was generated.
Bivol was a lot more efficient than Beterbiev with the punches he threw, but this doesn’t win you fights.
Beterbiev had threw over 200 more punches, to land a handful less than Bivol, but fights are scored on a per-round basis, the activity of each fighter per-round will determine the final score.
The following source contains stats from CompuBox, published on Boxing Scene: https://iframe.boxingscene.com/compubox-stats-artur-beterbiev-dmitry-bivol–186425
The figures are:
- Artur Beterbiev: 137/682
- Dmitri Bivol: 142/423
Ring-control, effective aggression, landing clean punches etc. are all factors that will influence the judges decision making process.
Lets look at the following clip for further analysis
This is a clip from a highlights video uploaded by DAZN, it shows a sequence in round 11, which was very much like how the fight developed at that stage.
In Conclusion, Dmitri Bivol Was Not Robbed
I would like to conclude that the right man won, Bivol simply didn’t do enough in the championship rounds to sway the judges in his favour.
I would also like to state that I predicted a Bivol victory, with a decision being the more likely outcome, than a TKO/KO.
Bivol can certainly win the rematch, and he needs to be in a focused mindset, and prepare accordingly, the petition is unnecessary.