by Keith Idec
Eddie Hearn doesn’t think any objective observer could convince him that Artur Beterbiev won six rounds against Dmitry Bivol on Saturday night, let alone eight.
As certain as Bivol’s promoter is that Bivol deserved to win their light heavyweight championship unification clash, Hearn conveyed confidence during their post-fight press conference that his fighter will get an immediate rematch. Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, told Bivol, Hearn and others at ringside that he wants to schedule a second bout between Beterbiev and Bivol as soon as possible.
The GEA financed the entire card headlined by Beterbiev-Bivol at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs), who won a majority decision, and Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) each earned approximately $10 million for a long-awaited bout that crowned boxing’s first fully unified 175-pound champion of the four-belt era.
Hearn, chairman of Matchroom Boxing, doesn’t think anything other than a rematch versus Bivol makes sense for the injury-prone Beterbiev, who will turn 40 in January.
“Yeah, I mean, ‘His Excellency’ [Alalshikh] said, ‘Wrong decision. We do a rematch.’ … We know he’s a man of his word,” Hearn said. “We know he supported Dmitry Bivol. We thank him so much, not just for the opportunities for Dmitry Bivol, but what he’s given boxing tonight by making that fight. And there has to be a rematch because Artur Beterbiev, you know, there’s always gonna be the controversy of that fight.
“And he’s a true champion. What other fight is there for Artur Beterbiev? I mean, the whole world will want to see that again. The whole world will know. You know, I’m sure there’s some that found a Beterbiev victory. But everybody I know that knows boxing didn’t tell me that at ringside.”
Judges Pawel Kardyni (116-112) and Glenn Feldman (115-113) disagreed with Hearn’s assessment. They scored eight and seven rounds, respectively, for Beterbiev because the Russian champion pressured Bivol for most of their 12-round encounter and landed the flusher punches regularly against a cerebral, fleet-footed technician who tried to out-point him while typically moving backward.
Judge Manuel Oliver Palomo gave Beterbiev and Bivol six rounds apiece (114-114).
Alalshikh thinks all three judges got it wrong.
“I don’t think the result is fair, in my opinion,” Alalshikh said as he walked away from ringside. “I think it is as least for Bivol [by] two rounds … the two fighters like my brother, OK? But I think Bivol [won] two rounds more. I don’t know why the result [is] like this, but in my opinion, I will focus and I will try to do the rematch. They deserve it. They deserve it. If they accept, we will do it.”
Beterbiev, 39, and Bivol, 33, expressed equal interest in fighting again next.
“We should ask boxing fans,” said Bivol, who refused to make what he considered “excuses” for his first professional loss. “Do they want this rematch? If they want [it], I would like to give this rematch and I would like to get this chance, of course, again.”
Montreal’s Beterbiev, who went the distance for the first time since he was an amateur, would welcome the profitable opportunity to beat Bivol more decisively in a second fight for his IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC and WBO belts.
“If ‘His Excellency’ want,” Beterbiev told DAZN’s Chris Mannix in the ring, “we gonna do [it].”