Artur Beterbiev captured the undisputed light heavyweight championship with a majority decision victory over Dmitry Bivol on Saturday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Beterbiev closed the battle of Russian boxers strongly and prevailed via scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114 in an entertaining fight contested at the highest skill level.
With the victory in the long-awaited summit meeting, Beterbiev became boxing's first undisputed 175-pound champion in the four-belt era. Bivol entered the bout rated No. 1 by ESPN at light heavyweight and No. 4 pound for pound. Beterbiev was No. 2 in the division and No. 6 pound for pound.
"Of course it's a tough fight because Dmitri is a champion, too," Beterbiev said. "He has good skills, maybe better than me. But today, Allah chose me."
Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) entered the bout as boxing's only champion with a 100% KO ratio, a streak that ended Saturday with the biggest victory of his storied career.
Beterbiev turns 40 in January and was coming off knee surgery to repair a ruptured meniscus, a procedure that postponed the fight from June. But he was still able to rally over the second half of the bout to cement himself as a Hall of Fame fighter.
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) controlled the action over the first half, especially early on as he unleashed his excellent jab and footwork to keep the power puncher at bay.
Bivol was the cleaner, sharper puncher and did well to counter Beterbiev with a left hook over his vaunted power jab. But Beterbiev never stopped coming. Even when his punches were blocked -- and most of them were -- they seemed to still have an impact on Bivol's high guard.
Bivol, 33, entered the bout with the edge in big-fight experience following his career-best win over boxing's top star, Canelo Alvarez, in May 2022. But it was Beterbiev who swept the final three rounds to pull out the victory.
"I did my job," Bivol said. "I felt that I could do better. ... He is powerful, very powerful.
"And you see I have a bruise from my hand," he said, holding his hand up by his eye. "He always beat it and it was so hard, even he reached my eye."
Bivol emerged with his left eye badly bruised and swollen, and he also had marks around his right eye.
"I'm aware I have to do everything perfect, and I don't have any explanation because it could look like excuses," Bivol said. "I just [give] congratulations to Artur and his team. He deserves it, no problem. I just have time to make another decision for my future."
The fight clearly called for a rematch, with many observers and fans scoring it for Bivol. There should be plenty of demand, too, considering the drama of the contest and the lack of a clear winner.
Bivol's promoter, Eddie Hearn, expressed anger over the fight's result, particularly the 116-112 score in favor of Beterbiev.
"Listen, I don't want to disrespect Beterbiev," Hearn said. "But you saw the body language, they knew they'd lost the fight. 116-112 Beterbiev? You gave Bivol four rounds? This is a joke. Of course [we want a rematch], he was robbed of the undisputed championship tonight. I cannot believe you could give Bivol four rounds. ... It's absolutely disgusting. I'm absolutely baffled and disgusted at 116-112."
Bivol said he "of course" wants another shot at Beterbiev: "Why not? ... If I have this chance, yes. This is my dream to be undisputed."
But it was Beterbiev who achieved his dream of collecting all four belts when he added Bivol's WBA title to go along with the IBF, WBC and WBO titles.
"I wanted to box today with more quality," Beterbiev said. "I don't know why, but I didn't like this fight. But I'll be better one day. ... If His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh] wants [the rematch], then we can do it."