This weekend, the eyes of the boxing world will once again be firmly fixed on the dunes of Arabia for Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol 2, aka ‘The Last Crescendo’.
The two light heavyweights are set to lock horns for a second time on a stacked PPV card that includes the likes of Daniel Dubois, Joseph Parker, Hamzah Sheeraz, Zhilei Zhang, and Shakur Stevenson.
Just like their first fight back in October 2024, this weekend’s enormous world championship rematch is expected to be another razor-close affair – but who got the nod the first time around?
Who won the first fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol?
Heading into that first undefeated champion vs undefeated champion showdown in October, fans were expecting the fight to be a back-and-forth chess match; and back-and-forth it certainly was.
Dmitry Bivol won the opening two rounds on all three of the judges’ scorecards, Artur Beterbiev won the third round in a similar clean sweep, with the fourth round being split – two judges gave it to Beterbiev, one to Bivol.
Beterbiev clearly won the next two rounds (five and six) and claimed the seventh 2-1 on the judges’ scorecards – Bivol then rallied back to win rounds eight and nine in unanimous fashion.
The result was hanging in the balance as the fight entered its championship rounds; and this was when Artur Beterbiev piled on the pressure, winning the final three rounds (10-12) on all three of the judges’ scorecards.
Artur Beterbiev ultimately got the nod with a majority decision victory: 114-114, 114-113, and 116-112.
As per CompuBox, Dmitry Bivol connected on 50% of his power punches whereas Beterbiev connected on just 29% – the stats also show that it was certainly a ‘fight of two halves’.
In the first six rounds, Dmitry Bivol landed 33 power punches to Beterbiev’s 23; however, in the last six rounds, it was Beterbiev who landed with better intent 67-51 in power punches – eight of the 12 rounds were separated by 4 or fewer punches.
The highly-anticipated rematch between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev goes down this weekend, live from Riyadh.
Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev come face-to-face ahead of rematch
Earlier this week, Bivol and Beterbiev re-watched their first fight in a video package for TNT Sports Boxing, with Bivol admitting that he “made some mistakes” that ultimately cost him the decision victory.
“I made some mistakes, some moves which I shouldn’t [have made],” he noted, before quickly adding that he remained focused on the task at hand throughout.
The superstar duo refused to shake each other’s hands after their shared interview; although there’s very little bitterness between the two.
Both athletes were recently asked to name each other’s biggest strengths in an interview with Sky Sports.
“Power, strength [and] focus,” acknowledged the Russian Canadian, with Dmitry Bivol claiming that Beterbiev’s biggest strength lies in his aggression and endurance.
Can Beterbiev go 2-0 up, or will Bivol equal the score at one apiece? Find out on Saturday, February 22.