Last weekend the first absolute world boxing champion from Russia was determined. In a very difficult and close fight, Artur Beterbiev took victory from Dmitry Bivol by majority decision and is now the owner of the four main light heavyweight belts.
However, the controversy surrounding the fight does not subside. Or rather, around the judge’s decision. There was a lot of talk on the topic that Bivol actually won, and a search for conspiracy theories immediately began. Dmitry himself responded neutrally to all questions about refereeing: “I don’t want to lash out at the judges? Not to mention driving. In general, I just don’t like these stories: “Well, they sued me, they didn’t give it to me, but this could have been done, this could have been done.” Generally I accept what I have, I thank God for everything that happens to me. I have what I have. Let’s move on. There is no time for regrets, excuses. There is time to make new decisions.”
Bivol will still have a chance to win the absolute championship:
Bivol will remain the absolute champion. You don’t even need a rematch with Beterbiev for this.
But Bivol’s team spoke out about the arbitration and did so quite harshly. For example, boxer trainer Gennady Mashyanov said the following: “Overall, I am happy with the fight. The battle is won. After the ninth round I was sure we were winning. We won seven of nine rounds. I thought the result was already a foregone conclusion. We had no doubts about victory. When the fight ended, the referee in the ring, the person closest to the fight, walked up to us very confidently and said, “Congratulations on your victory.” Yes, immediately after the fight the referee came up and congratulated Dima on his victory. And he congratulated me. One judge scored the rounds 8-4 in favor of Beterbiev. The same judge gave the same score in the fight between Lomachenko and Haney, when Lomachenko was robbed. Then they also wrote that this judge should be expelled so that he would not be anywhere. And it was brought here on purpose. A controlled person. They told him that victory should go to this or that person. And he did what he was told.”
And later, Bivol coach Vadim Kornilov said that a protest against the refereeing would be filed: “Yes, we will file a protest on Monday. We are in dialogue with everyone and we will do it. We all know it won’t work, but at least the judge who scored it 116-112 should be held accountable. He understands what he did. This is a very destructive problem for sport. There are several organizations that have many supervisors who are friends of the judges. They hug the promoters and… it all seems like a great plan. This judge fought a lot of fights and was good at them. It would be great if they sat him down and made him count all those kicks. I want to see where he saw 116-112, how he calculated it.”
Arthur Beterbiev – Dmitry Bivol
Photo: Getty Images
Promoter Eddie Hearn also mentioned the 116-112 score: “I am disappointed that after months of hard work, Bivol has not become the overall champion. The judge who scored 116-112 should never work in this sport again.”
This is the Polish judge Pavel Kardyni. And by the way, Mashyanov is wrong: he didn’t work on the Haney-Lomachenko fight. But he really has a lot of fights behind him, even in Russia. Kardyni even reached Barnaul and Magnitogorsk. And this is not the first time that the Pole has worked in Bivol fights. In June he was among the judges for the fight with Malik Zinad. There, the Russian won ahead of schedule, but at the time of the end, Kardyn’s cards had a score of 50-44 in favor of Dmitry. Before that, Pavel worked on the Bivol fight with Gilberto Ramírez. Also without incident: I fired nine rounds at the Russian.
What to do next for Beterbiev:
Go for new belts or end your career. What’s next for Artur Beterbiev?
But at one point, Kardyni gave the victory to Denis Lebedev in a fight with Murat Gassiev, despite the fact that two other judges saw a fairly large advantage over the other boxer. I mean, in general Kardyni made strange decisions, but in most of the fights he was fine.
As for the protest against the outcome of the battle, it seems like a big scandal. Actually, as a rule, it doesn’t work. It can be remembered that in the aforementioned Haney-Lomachenko fight there was a similar situation: there was a lot of talk about theft and refereeing in general. Then Vasily’s team also loudly declared a protest and submitted it. Has anything changed? No. Not long ago a similar situation occurred with the fight between Maxim Vlasov and Joe Smith Jr. Defeat by decision – protest – silence.
Arthur Beterbiev – Dmitry Bivol
Photo: Getty Images
And Vadim Kornilov, declaring a protest, also emphasizes that this will not work. Everyone understands this very well, but there is still interest in the Bivol-Beterbiev fight, and a rematch can potentially be promoted from this story. Furthermore, Arthur has already said that he is willing to give Dmitry a chance in six months. Well, no one will review the result of the first fight, it just doesn’t work that way in boxing.
And most likely the judge will not be removed either. The criteria are too subjective to calculate in professional boxing, where it is necessary to take into account not only clean hits, but also damage, pressure, pressure and other parameters that can only be evaluated visually. Therefore, a lot depends solely on what this or that judge saw. Especially when the fight is so close.
Bivol’s defeat will not be overturned, no matter how many protests are presented. The best solution is to try to get a rematch and eliminate all the questions that already exist.
