Dmitry Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs) retained his WBA light heavyweight title with a one-sided twelve round unanimous decision win over a game IBO champ Lyndon Arthur (23-2, 16 KOs) on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Bivol boxed well, nailing Arthur with combinations throughout and knocking him down in the eleventh round with a left to the body.
The knockdown came at the end of the round, which saved Lyndon from getting stopped. In between rounds, he was still recovering from the body shots, and it looked like he wouldn’t make it through the next round.
The scores: 120-107, 120-107, and 120-107.
Dominant Bivol, Cautious Approach
In the twelfth, Bivol trapped Lyndon against the ropes and unloaded a flurry of nonstop punches that had the referee close to stopping. Lyndon finally threw a counter shot just in time to prevent the referee from stopping the fight. The punch caused Bivol to back off, as it caught him in the head, and he looked wary for the remainder of the twelfth.
Arthur appeared to hurt Bivol with a body shot in the eighth round, causing him to back up to the middle of the ring to recover. Lyndon tried to take advantage of the situation but didn’t let his hands go with enough shots to add to the damage.
Coming off a long thirteen-month layoff, the 32-year-old Bivol fought like he was sparring, not wanting to take chances and seemingly letting Arthur off the hook several times when he looked ready to be finished.
Bivol’s jab and counter-punching made it difficult for Lyndon to do much other than landing an occasional hard shot. Power-wise, Lyndon appeared to have the better power on his shots, but he wasn’t letting his hands go enough to give himself a chance of establishing momentum in the fight.
Beterbiev’s shadow looms large
All in all, it wasn’t the kind of performance from Bivol that suggests that he’ll defeat IBF, WBC & WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed championship in 2024 if he’s the one that he winds up facing. Beterbiev has so much power, and it’s fair to say that he would catch Bivol with a counter and knock him out.
“I tried to feel the distance, I tried to use my jab, and I tried to get him to throw more punches. I was enjoying it,” said Bivol to the media following his win over Lyndon Arthur.
“It was a good punch, and I saw he was hurt,” said Bivol about the body shot knockdown he scored on Arthur in the eleventh round. “Before that knockdown, I caught him with a punch, and I saw it wasn’t comfortable for him, but he took his chance, and he recovered.”
Bivol failed to go for the kill, and looked afraid in the same way he did when he fought Joe Smith Jr. and Craig Richards. He fought scared when he felt the power of those fighters and was lucky not to lose.
If Bivol will need to change the way he fights for him to have a chance of beating Beterbiev or Callum Smith because those are going to be putting massive pressure on him.
“I didn’t say he was better or worse. He was as I expected him to be. I felt before this that I was ready. I want this fight, and it’s a good time now to get a big fight,” said Bivol when asked if he feels ready to fight the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Callum Smith fight.
“Yeah, Turki Alalshikh asked me, ‘Let’s make fight against Jai Opetaia.’ I told him that I want to do everything in my weight division, and then we will see. Maybe I will move up, but I couldn’t say I’d make fight with him or Joshua or somebody else. I want to focus on my weight division now,” said Bivol when asked if he’d be interested in moving up to cruiserweight to face former IBF champ Jai Opetaia.
Some would argue that Bivol is afraid of fighting Opetaia, knowing that he would be under attack the entire time and that he wouldn’t be able to stand in front of him, throwing combinations like he normally does.
“For me, it’s my goal [to be undisputed 175-lb champion], and he [Turki Alalshikh] wants to make this fight. He told me, ‘I don’t know. Maybe we can’t agree with Top Rank, and we can’t make this fight. Let’s talk about another fight.’ I told him, ‘Let’s try and not talk about another fight. Let’s focus on this fight [Beterbiev vs. Smith winner],'” said Bivol.
“No, I don’t have a prediction. I don’t like to make predictions. Everyone wants to stop a fight early [i.e., score a knockout]. Even me, I wanted to stop the fight earlier.
“Maybe not too much like other boxers, but I was enjoying. I’m in boxing to have fun and enjoy it in the ring to see how I affect the crowd. I just feel like I’m alive when I’m in the ring,” said Bivol.
