DMITRY BIVOL failed to grab undisputed light-heavyweight glory after losing to Artur Beterbiev – but it was not without controversy.
The 33-year-old Russian WBA champ dared to take on the compatriot and silent assassin who held the WBC, IBF and WBO crowns.
And he controlled the bearded menace until the judges should have cemented his place in the pantheons of boxing’s best.
But one called it a 114-114 draw and the other two went further, giving it 116-112 and 115-113 to Beterbiev.
After the fight, Bivol’s promoter Eddie Hearn could not believe what he had witnessed, describing the judges’ scorecards an “absolute joke”.
He went on to say his man had been “robbed of the undisputed championship tonight.”
Both magnificent amateurs prodded and poked in the opening two minutes and 50 seconds.
Then they just as the wooden toll signalled the final 10, then plunged at each other and both landed heavy precise blows.
Beterbiev looped in a right hook but the 33-year-old tagged back with a one-two counter.
Bivol’s viper-like jab helped him take control of the second round when Beterbiev kept cutting the ring down and pushing the pace but not landing any flush punches.
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Bivol’s matador impression was masterful, his one-twos were crisp and his footwork made the bearded bull look basic at times.
The first two minutes were always cagey and tactical but the final minute always seemed to be a gunfight and the third was not different.
By the fourth round it felt like Bivol was recreating his Canelo clinic from 2022, inviting pressure on from the smaller, more spiteful man. But punishing it on the backfoot with precision and speed.
Beterbiev’s constant pressure and bludgeoning blows earned him the fifth round when Bivol was clipped and had to dance out of the ring to avoid disaster.
Round six was when he felt like Bivol was starting to drown in the desert. Wave after wave of Beterbiev attack seemed to be smothering him and filling his lungs with water when he was desperate for air.
But even though he surrendered the centre of the ring for all of the first six rounds, he was still pinging counters in off the ropes and scoring.
Bivol dared to be great in the seventh, but courage in the squared circle creates openings for your opponent and Beterbiev didn’t need asking twice..
The WBA boss unleashed eye-catching and point-scoring blows but Beterbiev saw those as an invitation to attack and seemed to wobble his former Team Russian amateur understudy.
Both men took the technical decision to do very little work in the first two minutes, sometimes they would only really engage in the final 30 seconds.
It was the same in round eight when they waited until the last knockings to blow their energy and most spiteful shots.
But it seemed to be Bivol who was banking rounds with regular flurries more successful than occasional blows.
Round nine might have been Bivol’s best. He seemed so at home and comfortable in the most uncomfortable position imaginable.
He was the sole prey of a violent Chechen KO artist who was chasing him around the ring.
But he had the skill and psychological strength to make it look, at times, like a sparring session.
Bivol had his chin checked at the start of the tenth, by a thudding right hand. And his heart and lungs at the end of the stanza. But every inch of his anatomy was getting full marks.
Bivol was boxing beautifully in the penultimate round until a right hand around the back of the ear’ole knocked him out of his rhythm but not off his course to four-belt glory.
Beterbiev hounded and pounded him but he absorbed and ran and even had the audacity to fire back.
Round 12 was the Soviet slugfest we needed to end the week and the rivalry.
Both men when hammer and nail and when Bivol was still standing at the end, he knew he had done enough and began his deserved celebrations, for taming the Beast from the East, with supreme style and courage.
But the judges saw differently, much to the utter shock and dismay of Team Bivol who could not believe their man had suffered his first ever defeat as a professional.
