Plenty of interesting battles occured this past weekend, none more so than the undisputed light-heavyweight bout between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol which saw the former make history as he became the first undisputed 175 lbs champion of the modern four-belt era. Their fight headlined a multi-promotional card, sponsored by Riyadh Season, on October 12th at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Artur Beterbiev Vs. Dmitry Bivol

Russians Artur Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KO’s) and Dmitry Bivol (23-1, 12 KO’s) headlined a Riyadh Season-sponsored card at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. With their respective light-heavyweight (175 lbs) titles and unbeaten records on the line, this bout was arguably one of the most significant matches to occur this year, and the two did not disappoint. The multi-promotional card was held on Saturday, October 12th.

Their match was as close as one would expect from two elite fighters, with both Russians’ different styles matching well against one another. The first couple of rounds went largely in the favor of Bivol who used a combination of boxing at range and counterattacking moves to claim most of the first half of the bout. With his jab proving his most devastating weapon, Beterbiev struggled at first to properly pinpoint and target Bivol.

However, Bivol’s activity and pace eventually slowed down, allowing Artur Beterbiev to capitalize and pressure Dmitry Bivol to the best of his ability. While Bivol’s footwork often sought to keep him safe from Beterbiev, the Russian-Canadian’s seemed to damage even in moments where Bivol was forced to defend and tuck in.

As a result, the match quickly devolved into a high-class chess match between the two, with Dmitry Bivol using every offensive and defensive tactic to stop Artur Beterbiev from bulldozing him while Beterbiev himself bit deep into his tank to attempt to close out the show several times. This became especially evident in the latter three rounds, the championship rounds, where Beterbiev pushed forward to claim a victory by knockout (KO).

After the 12-scheduled rounds, there was a sense of a draw not appearing out of place with neither fighter having truly dominated one another to make for an extremely close match. However, it was Artur Beterbiev who would be crowned the undisputed 175 lbs champion with scorecards of 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114 making him the winner by majority decision (MD), allowing him to unify Bivol’s WBA title with his own WBC, WBO and IBF titles.

Despite the victory, there are question marks surrounding not only the scorecards but whether Beterbiev was supposed to be the rightful winner. Polish judge Pawel Kardyni’s scorecard of 116-112 was strictly inaccurate given the extreme closeness of the match, with a draw appearing to be more appropriate, while Bivol too seemed to have done quite a bit better within the match according to the known punch stats:

CompuBox’s punch stats paint a prevalent picture where Bivol stood out with his accuracy while Beterbiev seemed to be the more active fighter judging by the punches thrown, Beterbiev appears the more active fighter on paper despite his lack of activity, with his most significant stat pertaining to the amount of power punches landed.

As in what occurred in the match, these power punch stats depict Artur Beterbiev as having done more damage while Dmitry Bivol proved himself the better boxer. However, it is exactly Bivol’s effectiveness in the ring and Beterbiev’s failure to stop Bivol―which culminated in Bivol breaking Beterbiev’s KO streak―that was seemingly not taken into account at all by at least two of the judges. Then there was the fact that Beterbiev’s efficiency was low exactly because Bivol maintained his defense well, thereby portraying a fight where Bivol largely defined himself through offense and defense, while Beterbiev failed to truly establish himself as the most powerful puncher in the light-heavyweight division.

Riyadh Season’s own organizer, General Entertainment Authority (GEA) chairman Turki Alalshikh, also showed displeasure at the result, hinting that a draw or even a Bivol win would have been more suited for the occassion:

“It [was] one of the [best] fights I have ever seen in the last 20 years [at least],” Alalshikh stated to The Stomping Ground after the fight.

“But I don’t think the result [was] fair, in my opinion,” He continued. “The two fighters [Beterbiev & Bivol] are like my [brothers], but I [thought] Bivol won 2 more rounds.

“I don’t know why the result’s like this, but in my opinion, I will focus and I will try to do the rematch.“

Though no rematch clause has been confirmed for this match, the close nature of the bout and controversy surrounding at least one of the scorecards appears to merit a rematch to draw a more decisive conclusion. The fact that Alalshikh, Riyadh Seasons’s most prevalent organizer, believed Bivol won validates the theory a victory for Bivol or draw would have possibly been the more fitting result.

Undercard Results:

At heavyweight (200+ lbs), British fighters Fabio Wardley (18-0-1, 17 KO’s) and Frazer Clarke (8-1-1, 6 KO’s) were allowed to stage a rematch of their fight held earlier this year where they fought to a split-decision (SD) draw.

However, this time around, the match did not go the full 12 rounds as it ended surprisingly quickly in just the 1st round as Fabio Wardley ended the fight in just the 1st minute after a slew of powerful and crippling combinations sent a hurt Frazer Clarke into retreat. Another set of combinations finished the fight after Clarke suffered a knockdown following a hard right hand from Wardley, and was subsequently dropped to his knees.

With there having been clear signs of Clarke appearing to be in no mental condition to fight, the referee called the fight off. No protest emerged from a visibly immobile Clarke, suggesting the referee had made the right decision and thus granting Wardley a pivotal and surprising victory by technical knockout (TKO). Wardley retained his BBBofC British and Commonwealth titles as a result.

At cruiserweight (200 lbs) , Australian The Ring and IBF champion Jai Opetaia (26-0, 20 KO’s) proved his talent once more in his first official IBF title defense since regaining the belt earlier this year.

Faced against British contender Jack Massey (22-3, 12 KO’s), Opetaia seemed to not have lost a single step since his last bout as he successfully over saw a TKO victory over Massey, stopping him in the 6th round of their 12-round bout, dominating every round in the process.

At middleweight (160 lbs), British middleweight veteran Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3, 25 KO’s) fought a hard and tough opponent in Polish contender Kamil Szeremeta (25-3-2, 8 KO’s) but managed to end the fight within the distance, knocking down Szeremeta twice over the course of the fight before the Polish fighter was finally stopped in the 6th round―shortly after suffering his second knockdown of the match. Eubank won the [vacant] IBO 160-pound title as a result.

A brief and interesting exchange occurred between Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn (23-0, 14 KO’s) after the bout as both fighters trashtalked each other in the ring to tease an upcoming a fight between the two. Of course, this is contingent on the result of Benn’s meeting with the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) which would have reportedly been held this month. This meeting would determine whether he would be banned from boxing or allowed to fight again. As no date was given for this meeting, it is unknown whether this verdict has already occurred, or has yet to occur.

In the women’s featherweight (126 lbs) division, Australian WBC champion Skye Nicolson (12-0, 1 KO’s) sharply outclassed British challenger Raven Chapman (9-1, 2 KO’s) over the course of 10 rounds, culminating in Chapman suffering her first career defeat while Nicolson retained her WBC world title for the second time of her career.

One of the more surprising results of the match was certainly the 175 lbs match between British prospect Ben Whittaker (8-0-1, 5 KO’s) and countryman Liam Cameron (23-6-1, 10 KO’s). It was supposed to be a step-up bout of sorts for Whittaker, an Olympic silver medalist, to prove his superior talent but it turned into a virtual disaster as Whittaker found himself in the most evenly-sided contest of his career.

It was a severely close fight that forced the normally showboating Whittaker to draw out his full reservoir of skills. Ben Whittaker boxed well, but Liam Cameron was both a tough and powerful challenger that threatened Whittaker’s defense on multiple occassions. Whittaker might have been winning on the cards but he seemed close to breaking down as a result of Cameron’s offense, and the match―originally scheduled for 10 rounds―ended in the 5th round as the two fighters tumbled over the ropes during an exchange, with Whittaker apparently sustaining a leg injury of sorts after going across the ropes.

Based on the scorecards, the fight was thereafter ruled a technical decision (TD) draw according to the judges’ scorecards [both fighters received a 58-57 score each with one other judge scoring it as a 58-58 draw] based on the 5 rounds they fought. As a result, Whittaker retained both his IBF International and WBO Global light-heavyweight titles but may have damaged his reputation with an expected win over Cameron having remained absent.