Dmitry Bivol narrowly lost out on becoming undisputed light heavyweight champion after an epic fight with Artur Beterbiev this past weekend.
It was Bivol’s famous boxing skills that won him plenty of early rounds in the fight, but the bludgeoning power of Beterbeiv eventually started getting through and cleaning up some of the later rounds.
It was close on the cards after the conclusion of 12 but Beterbiev took the majority decision, his first in 21 fights having knocked out all 20 of his opponents before Saturday night.
Speaking to 210BoxingTV, top trainer Robert Garcia, who is in the corner for the likes of Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez and Vergil Ortiz, was asked for his view of the contest and agreed it was close but thought Bivol had done enough to win.
“I thought it was a pretty close fight. Me personally I thought Bivol pulled it off, 7-5, very close.
I thought he won the first three rounds with his combinations moving around and I think he still won a few more rounds after that, with that technique, beating him to the punch. In the late rounds, there was a few rounds where he was able to back him up and that’s when he was successful.”
He acknowledged Beterbiev’s success later on but still believed Bivol landed the better punches.
“Beterbiev kept putting pressure and even though Bivol was blocking a lot he stayed busy with punches. But me personally I think the most effective punches, the better punches that landed were in Bivol’s favour. But it was close, it could have gone either way.”
