Reigning WBA light heavyweight boxing world champion, Dmitry Bivol, successfully defended his belt and also picked up the IBO title with a dominant victory over Britain’s Lyndon Arthur in a unification bout.
The title fight, which took place at an evening of boxing in the Saudi capital Riyadh, went the full distance, with the judges giving the Russian boxer the victory three times by unanimous decision with a score of 120-107 at the end of twelve rounds.
Throughout the match, Bivol worked the first number one, shooting his opponent with his jab and forcing him against the ropes, as well as working with multi-strike combinations, one of which led to the fact that at the end of the eleventh round Artur was forced to take a knee, missing a blow to the liver. Nevertheless, in the final round, the Briton managed to survive several more prolonged attacks from the Russian and made it to the final siren.
In his post-match interview Dmitry Bivol called the fight a “good sparring session” and said that he would like to fight for the title of absolute world boxing champion next time and share the ring with the winner of the fight for the WBC, IBF and WBO titles between Artur Beterbiev and Callum Smith, who will meet on January 13.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33482-dmitrij-bivol-otobral-chempionskij-poyas-ibo-u-lindona-artura.html?rand=19907
