Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol left their undisputed light-heavyweight world title hopes in the hands of the judges, who sided with Beterbiev to take home all four belts.
That was after an extremely close-fought affair in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in which both men impressed. The scores of 114-114, 115-113 and 116-112 to Beterbiev have been widely debated in the aftermath.
Speaking on his podcast, famed trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas revealed that he has now rewatched the fight away from the influences of ringside and, despite coming up with the same score of 115-113 for Beterbiev, has given different rounds to each man. There’s perhaps no better way to convey just how close the action was.
“After ten rounds I had it 95-95, dead even. Beterbiev took the championship rounds. Now, I got the same score when I looked at it again but I got it a different way. I got it a much different way. After watching it the second time with no sound, in a vacuum away from all the stuff at ringside, I gave the first four rounds to Bivol. You want to argue with me? I think you’re wrong. But hey, you think I’m wrong.
And then Beterbiev gets the engine going and what does he do? He takes the next four … to stop the momentum of those straight four rounds that Beterbiev took, Bivol comes back like a champion. He comes back and he takes the ninth and that makes it even [after ten].”
Atlas, like most, feels a rematch is warranted.
“Similar to the Usyk-Fury fight that happened where everyone was satisfied. Where it was the right fight for a historic, undisputed night. It demanded a rematch. This fight the same thing. It demanded a rematch.”
Both fighters have said they are open to the second fight and could run it back mid-2025.
