Dmitry Bivol (21-0, 11 KO’s) has remained undefeated after his victory against Gilberto Ramirez (44-1, 30 KO’s) who challenged him for the WBA (Super) Light-Heavyweight title. The match marks Ramirez’ first loss as a professional, while Bivol successfully defended his WBA world title for the 11th time of his career. This is notably Bivol’s second big win in 2022, having defeated Saul Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KO’s) earlier this year in May, and now Gilberto Ramirez who was previously undefeated and a former world champion in a lower weight class.
Bivol virtually maintained control of the match from start to finish, defending and counterattacking effectively while keeping Ramirez occupied with his slick offense. While Ramirez did not lack in energy and intention, Bivol showed an array of abilities – from creating angles towards the positioning of his feet/body – to neutralize Ramirez’ offense. Gilberto Ramirez’ own defense also wasn’t a match for Bivol’s well-coordinated punches and intellectual approach at stifling Ramirez’ swarmer-style (unleashing successive combinations as much as possible). As a result, Ramirez could do little to break through Dmitry Bivol’s solid defense and plethora of tricks he proved to have up his sleeve.
After twelve rounds, the judges scored the fight in favor of Dmitry Bivol with noticeably wide score margins of 118-110 and 117-111 twice. Gilberto Ramirez was the WBO’s former Super Middleweight champion from 2016 to 2018 before moving up to Light-Heavyweight to challenge himself. He remained undefeated as Light-Heavyweight and was on an unstoppable winning streak where he stopped or knocked out each opponent, which partially helped him to move up the rankings rapidly along with beating credible opponents in Sullivan Barrera, Yunieski Gonzalez and Dominic Boesel, all three of whom he managed to either stop or knock out.
Bivol himself has been a mainstay in the Light-Heavyweight division since making his debut in 2014. Bivol built a fearsome reputation by stopping many of his earlier opponents, but in recent years he has let his technical skills do the talking, resulting in a plethora of decisive and clean victories against some of his division’s best including Joe Smith Jr., Craig Richards, Umar Salamov and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (who moved up to Light-Heavyweight briefly in the summer of 2022 to face Bivol).
Included on the card of Bivol vs. Ramirez was an undisputed Super Lightweight bout between Chantelle Cameron and Jessica McCaskill, and a Super Featherweight world title bout between Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov and Zelfa Barrett.
Bivol was interviewed following his victory against Ramirez. When asked the prospect of facing either Saul Alvarez for a rematch or Artur Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KO’s) for undisputed, Bivol made his side clear: “I prefer to fight for another belt but if I don’t have this chance in a couple (of) months, then four-five months, of course I will take another fight.”
Dmitry Bivol also seemed to have no qualms in moving down to Super Middleweight to face Saul Alvarez.
“It depends, (on) not only me. But for four belts, it is an interesting fight. Why not?” Bivol said. “But remember, I am Light-Heavyweight. This is my weight.”
As Bivol himself stated, a fight with Canelo Alvarez at 168 lbs would only be considered if both fighters are willing, and if there are four belts involved. He also reiterated that he was a Light-Heavyweight, which essentially alludes to the fact that he would have to strain himself in order to lose weight to face Alvarez. Since weight-cutting has often been considered to be detrimental to an athlete’s health, Bivol would be at a slight disadvantage to move down for one fight, even against a renowned fighter such as Saul Alvarez.
