Why Bivol Falls Short Vs Bererbiev: Fails to Sustain Usyk-Like Showing
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 18 Oct 2024
Current triple world heavyweight titlist Oleksander Usyk is the last man to defeat undisputed light heavyweight king Artur Beterbiev. He did it twice -- beating Beterbiev 17-13 in the 2012 London Olympics heavyweight (91kgs) quarterfinals and again the same score in an AIBA tournament. The heavyweight in the amateurs is equivalent to the cruiserweight in the pros.
Usyk from Ukraine would later turn pro initially at cruiserweights where he became undisputed champion and much later moved to the heavyweights where he also hold all four major belts for a while.
Beterbiev would turn pro much later at light heavyweight where he initially won the WBC, IBF and WBO titles before annexing the WBA crown from fellow Russian Dmitri Bivol in a much disputed majority decision recently.
Usyk was able to beat Beterbiev not once but twice not only by using his size advantage but by using his comparative speed, a lot of movements and busy punching including a combination of lead and smart counter punching. He had learned after losing to Beterbiev in their first fight that he had to make such adjustments to tame the rugged Russian.
Bivol's camp may not accept it but in the first half of the unification bout with Beterbiev in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, they took a page from this successful Usyk strategy.
Though Bivol is no bigger than Beterbiev, his corner was right in making him do what Usyk did in getting the better of Beterbiev especially in the opening four rounds -- a lot of movements, busy punching including a mix of well timed lead punching and smart counter punching, often in flurries.
Undoubtedly, Bivol was leading at least in two of the three judges scorecards by that time by 3 or 4 points.
But as Craig Richards who was among those who prepared Beterbiev for this fight, Beterbiev started to make his own adjustment by sustaining his pressure while continuously pumping shots in variety from throwaway punches suddenly to heavy power shots that kept Bivol constantly on his toes and guessing which was which.
Beterbiev's relentless in your face pressure and successfully disguising his power shots began to wore down Bivol beginning in the second half of the fight reducing him to a fighter on high guard and backtracking as Beterbiev walked him down firing shots after shots like an Energizer Bunny. Though many of the shots were caught by Bivol's upraised gloves, some went through and those that did not hit flesh still had concussive effects as swelling developed around Bivol's forehead area and above both eyes.
Bivol was on the defensive and on the backfoot from the 7th up to the final 12th round, only able to throw occasional counters in flurries when Beterbiev stopped to reset his constant 1-2 attacks behind a solid defense- his own imperviousness from hard shots from the opponent.
What worked for Usyk and initially for Bivol could have been effectively sufficient had the bout been for 3-4 rounds in the amateurs or 10 rounds in the pros. But the fight was for 12 rounds requiring the Kyrgyzstan-born Bivol to sustain a Usyk-like performance, perfect boxing as many said, to frustrate and defeat Beterbiev.
Obviously, Bivol failed to sustain such Usyk like showing and had nothing to counter Beterbiev's own adjustments by the second half of the bout.
It would be a stretch to say that the majority decision could have gone either way.
A draw would have been fair, though.
But no way Bivol lost by four points as what one judge's scorecard put it after 12 rounds.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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