Boxing

Dmitry Bivol Proved His Greatness In Win Over Artur Beterbiev

Dmitry Bivol became the undisputed light heavyweight champion with his win over Artur Beterbiev.

Nathaniel Marrero

Dmitry Bivol lands a left hook on Canelo Alvarez.
Dmitry Bivol lands a left hook on Canelo Alvarez. / IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire

How one performs when all of the chips are on the table is the ultimate decider of how great somebody is.

Just 133 days after he lost his belts in a narrow majority decision loss to Artur Beterbiev, Dmitry Bivol found himself on the verge of letting a second chance at becoming the undisputed light heavyweight champion slip through his grasp. Instead, Bivol turned the tables and took out the boogeyman, defeating Beterbiev by a majority decision to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion on Saturday at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

ā€œIā€™m just so happy," Bivol said after the win. I went through a lot in the last year. Thank you so much everybody. I appreciate everybody from my team, my coaches, everyone."

Bivol and Beterbiev have now handed each other the first losses of their professional career.

Things were trending in an even more ominous direction for Bivol compared to the first fight. While the rounds were close at the outset, Beterbiev's pressure was allowing him to gain momentum and he was off to an even better start compared to the first fight. Bivol's bid at revenge appeared bleak and it was trending toward him being the clear No. 2 light heavyweight of his era.

Then, Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) elevated his game to another level and turned the tide in the second half of the fight. His footwork helped him outmaneuver Beterbiev and he began to do much more damage against the former undisputed light heavyweight champion. Bivol out-landed Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KOs) in six of the final seven rounds while holding him under 10 punches landed in five of the last seven rounds after he landed a fight-high 21 punches in the fifth round, per CompuBox.

By the time the final bell rang, Bivol had turned a fight that was slipping away into the best win of his career, and after losing a close decision in the first fight, he left little to no doubt that he had done enough to hand Beterbiev his first loss as a pro.

"First fight, I didn't like how I did," Bivol said. "Second fight, I liked more. I feel I could be better even than this one but I did enough for the victory today. I'm happy."

Bivol also acknowledged the challenge Beterbiev posed and that without him, he wouldn't have been able to further cement himself as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

"He's a great fighter," Bivol said. "You can make history about yourself only if you have a great opponent. Without good opponents, you can not prove people that you are good."

Among the elite in boxing, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone with a more impressive victory than Bivol's over Beterbiev on Saturday. Not only is Bivol the only fighter to defeat Beterbiev, but he's the only one to go the distance against him and has done it twice after he won the first 20 fights of his career inside the distance.

Given the opponent and how the fight played out, Bivol's win was one of the most impressive in recent memory. Now, he can set his sights on a trilogy with Beterbiev and potentially David Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs) after that.

And if Bivol can defeat Beterbiev again and Benavidez after that, his place as the best light heavyweight of one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in this generation will be set in stone.

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Nathaniel Marrero
NATHANIEL MARRERO

Nathaniel Marrero is a writer for the Boxing, Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Ravens On SI sites. He's also written for the Orlando Sentinel and MLB.com, and was a part of UCF's sports show, Hitting The Field. He attended UCF and graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 2023. Twitter/X: Nate_Marrero