Beterbiev v Bivol official scorecards revealed as Eddie Hearn makes ‘disgusting’ jibe
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Artur Beterbiev's victory over Dmitry Bivol on Saturday night, which has stirred up some debate, has crowned him the undisputed champion of the light-heavyweight division. The official round-by-round scores from the judges have now been made public.
Beterbiev stepped into the eagerly awaited showdown in Saudi Arabia as the champion of the WBC, WBO, and IBF titles. By winning the match, he would claim Bivol's WBA title, making him the first undisputed light-heavyweight champion to hold all four significant belts since the legendary Roy Jones Jr. in 2002.
However, the victory wasn't without its disputes. Beterbiev won by majority decision, with the judges scoring the fight 114-114, 115-113, and 116-112 in his favor.
The final scorecard was especially confusing, as the match was viewed as intense and closely contested, with both fighters performing at a similar level. Most observers thought it could easily have gone either way, or even ended in a draw. Therefore, when one judge gave Beterbiev a significantly wide margin of victory, it raised a lot of eyebrows.
According to the official scorecards, it was judge Pawel Kardyni who created the disputed scorecard. He believed that Beterbiev bounced back from a sluggish beginning to dominate each round from the third to the seventh and concluded with a strong performance, winning the 10th, 11th, and 12th rounds.
He was the sole judge who scored against Bivol in the fourth round, marking the most notable instance of his disagreement with the other judges.
Judges Kardyni, Manuel Oliver Palomo, who had a score of 114-114, and Glenn Feldman, who scored it 115-113 in favor of Beterbiev, were largely in agreement for 10 out of the 12 rounds. However, their scores differed in the fourth and sixth rounds, where Palomo sided with Bivol, while Feldman and Kardyni favored Beterbiev. This disagreement contributed to the difference in the final tallies.
Following his fighter's first defeat, which brought his record to 23 wins and 1 loss, Bivol's promoter Eddie Hearn criticized the decision, directing most of his anger at judge Kardyni.
Hearn commented to DAZN, “In what can be considered one of the most significant bouts of our time, the most crucial fight for Dmitry Bivol, how can you only give him four rounds in that match? It’s completely unacceptable.”
In the 10th round, you could hear Beterbiev's corner urging him, "You need to knock him out to secure the victory." They were positioned against the ropes, fully aware that Artur Beterbiev was trailing in the match. Even Top Rank, who promotes Bivol, recognized that Beterbiev was on his way to losing this fight.
I'm completely shocked and appalled by the score of 116-112. That judge should never officiate again. Giving four rounds to Bivol in such an important fight is outrageous.
Frank Warren expressed that he believed Bivol won the match by "a couple of rounds," labeling the 116-112 scorecard as "absurd" and "laughable."
