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Few fighters have been so equally matched, at such a high level, with so much on the line as Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
And that was just October.
On Saturday, under similarly steeped circumstances, the Russian countrymen ran it back in the main event of a fully-loaded fight card – again in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – just 133 days after their first gloriously back-and-forth battle. How could the rematch possibly live up to their first fight?
With Bivol, the fight seemingly slipping through his fingers, finding the formula in the middle rounds and roaring back to edge Beterbiev and take the undisputed light-heavyweight championship on a majority decision by scores of 114-114, 116-112, 115-113.
Saturday’s narrative unfolded almost in reverse of the fighters’ first match-up, like thumbing a flip-book from back to front. Beterbiev took the initiative early, moving forward and cutting off the ring – slowly and subtly at first, but with more aggression and ill intention as the rounds ticked off.
Bivol’s traditional fight style props him upright, on the balls of his feet and almost clinically balanced to strike with medium-grade-power jab-right hand combinations. But after stockpiling early rounds in their first fight, Bivol found that approach wasn’t enough to topple the powerful, relentless Beterbiev. So on Saturday, Bivol seemed to make the conscious decision to dig in, bite down, and stand and fight.
It didn’t go well – not at first, anyway. Bivol likely slipped away with a round or two in the first half of the fight, but as Beterbiev advanced, unloaded and kept coming, Bivol gradually grew shellshocked. He moved just enough to initially stay out of the line of the worst of Beterbiev’s fire, occasionally throwing a counter combination. But by the middle rounds, Beterbiev was consistently hemming in Bivol, landing waves of punches and suffocating his opponent along the ropes and in the corners. Bivol, 34, was no longer looking for openings to play the aggressor, nor even countering.
In the fifth, a right hand upstairs from Beterbiev followed by sweeping right-left body shots showed a fighter in full control. In the sixth, a hammering right hand over the top seemed to stagger Bivol and perhaps signal an imminent end.
Instead, it was a turning point. Bivol finally made his stand. In the eighth, he began moving more left to right, slipping, timing Beterbiev. He landed a patented one-two, then ripped a right hand to Beterbiev’s ribs and a left hook upstairs. In the ninth, he channeled Bruce Lee and was very much like water, flowing away from an onslaught, and spinning and splashing a four-punch combination that bowed his opponent. The confidence visibly welled in Bivol and all but spilled over into the ring.
In the 10th, Beterbiev smashed a hard shot into Bivol’s midsection, but he hadn’t invested enough work there to slow his six-years-younger opponent early in the fight. Buoyed by a second wind, Bivol bounced, picking his shots and finished the round with a telling bum-rush of Beterbiev.
In the 11th there were stretches in which Bivol, his range and timing now fully locked in, stood at center ring, tagging Beterbiev, 40, with combinations and forcing his previously unstoppable force of an opponent into sideways – and even backwards – steps. Beterbiev attempted to empty his arsenal in the 12th and final round, and he detonated a right hand that likely was the blow that laced a nasty cut across Bivol’s left eye.
It was Bivol’s name, though, that was etched into the second half of the fight, which was enough to tilt the official scorecards his way. Bivol, 24-1 (12 KOs), after suffering his first career defeat at the hands of Beterbiev in October, returned the favor to Beterbiev, 21-1 (20 KOs), and almost certainly set up a rubber match that both fighters would welcome.
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
