Bivol Does a Sugar Ray Leonard in Outworking Bererbiev, Winning Undisputed 175 Lbs Crown
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 24 Feb 2025
His trainer may not admit it but Dmitry Bivol took a lot of pages from Sugar Ray Leonard's winning strategy against Marvin Hagler in outboxing and outworking Arthur Beterbiev for a revenge victory Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (early Sunday in Manila).
In pulling off the masterful win, Bivol is now the undisputed world light heavyweight champion, regaining his WBA title while winning the other major belts from his fellow Russian now based in Canada.
From where I watched, Bivol clearly won seven rounds, including three straight from the opening bell and another four straight, the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th round allowing him to coast to victory in the final round. I scored the fight 115-113 for Bivol, giving the last round to Beterbiev. The official scoring was a generous 114-114 tie (Jean Robert Laine) and 116-112 (Mike Fitzgerald) and 115-113 (Deon Dwarte), both for Bivol which I think were more reflective of the outcome of the fight.
Improving from his first fight performance which he lost also by majority decision, Bivol refused to be cowed by Beterbiev and like Leonard against Hagler, he always had counter whenever Beterbiev would unleash his usual 1-2 combo and he would connect in his more numerous combinations catching Arthur by surprise and forcing to go on defense and reset his attack. What's more, Bivol would also surprise Beterbiev with his ala Sugar Ray flurries whenever Arthur tried to regain his composure and reset. Those undoubtedly got the attention, particularly of the two judges, that gave him their votes despite the fact Beterbiev was the aggressor throughout the 12 round bout.
Beterbiev showed nothing new from the first fight, in fact from most of his previously won bouts. Like Hagler, he would chug forward, throwing single shots, at most a 1-2 combination to the head and body. That worked in the first fight against Bivol and all else he beat as those were enough to send them on their back feet and on their antenna defense, allowing Artur to work them over for a knockout or decisive points victory.
This time, Bivol took more risks, calculated risks to be able to time Beterbiev with his counters and combination and to take off and land his punches first. Clearly dazzled by Bivol, that made Beterbiev susceptible to Dmitry's eye catching flurries in many instances, including in rounds that were close and still to be contested by the two ring combatants-- and decided by the judges.
Leonard and Hagler never had a rematch to prove or disprove that Sugar Ray's win was a fluke. By the way it was a split decision victory for Leonard with the third and deciding judge (Jojo Guerra) giving Leonard an eight point victory margin giving rise to the controversy in what many believed was a deserved victory for Sugar Ray.
The conventional wisdom is that Bivol and Beterbiev are heading for an all deciding third fight. But there are many questions and stumbling blocks along the way. David Benavidez is the mandatory challenger for the winner. Then there's Canelo Alvarez who has expressed his desire to have a go again at Dmitry Bivol should he win this fight.
And then again, there's Arthur Beterbiev's advancing age and injury-plagued body. He does not have time to wait for a rubber match with Bivol.
Given the massive following of the Riyadh fight which once again accentuated Saudi Arabia's position as a global boxing hub, Turki Alalshik could bring back the two - Bivol and Beterbiev this September.
Abangan.
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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