WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) showed a rare glimpse of his punching power with a sixth-round TKO win over fringe contender Malik Zinad (22-1, 16 KOs) on Saturday night at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Zinad came out of the gates fast in the opening round, throwing hard right hands straight down the pipe and landing jarring jabs with a lot of power. However, he got a little too ambitious and was dropped by a left hand by Bivol.
In the second round, Bivol blooded Zinad’s nose with a straight right and controlled the action with his jab. Zinad fought cautiously, not wanting to take any chances of getting nailed again by another one of Bivol’s hard lefts.
Round Six: Bivol Secures the Stoppage
In the sixth round, Bivol connected with a heavy barrage of hard shots that hurt Zinad, sending him staggering to the ropes. The referee then stepped in and stopped the fight. The time of the stoppage was at 2:06 of round six.
The victory for the 33-year-old Bivol sets him up for an undisputed clash next against unified three-belt champion Artur Beterbiev.
