Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn thinks Dmitry Bivol was robbed on Saturday against Artur Beterbiev, which isn’t an unpopular stance in the boxing world right now.
Beterbiev won a majority decision to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion on Saturday in Riyadh.
“It’s a joke! They knew, they told (Beterbiev) in the 10th round, ‘You have to knock him out to win this fight,’” Hearn said.
“How can you score that fight 8-4 to Artur Beterbiev? Unbelievable. Terrible decision. … Hopefully (Turki Alalshikh) will do the decent thing and give Bivol a rematch. It was a masterclass performance in what was an amazing fight, and I don’t want to disrespect Artur Beterbiev, because he’s an incredible champion. But he did not win that fight. Dmitry Bivol won that fight.”
Bivol (23-1, 12 KO) lost his WBA title to Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KO), who went the distance for the first time and also holds the WBC, IBF, and WBO titles.
Both fighters were open to a rematch in their post-fight comments, and the demand will be there, because it was a good, high-level matchup and they still probably make the most sense as the best opponent for one another, and do deserve to keep their status as the sport’s two top fighters at 175 lbs.