Beterbiev crowned boxing’s undisputed light heavyweight world champion

After defeating Russian-born Canadian boxer Dmitry Bivol in Saudi Arabia with a majority decision, Artur Beterbiev has been declared the undisputed light-heavyweight world champion.

Two of the three ringside judges scored the fight 115-113 and 116-112 to Beterbiev, while the other called it tied at 114-114 at Riyadh’s Kingdom Arena on Saturday.

Both men were previously undefeated, with 33-year-old Bivol holding the WBA belt and Beterbiev, 39, the reigning WBC, WBO and IBF champion.

Bivol became the first man to go the distance against a champion who had a track record of winning either by knockout or stoppage by taking the bearded Beterbiev to the full 12 rounds in the Saudi capital.

“I wanted to box more, I don’t like this fight. I was a little bit uncomfortable”, Beterbiev said after his win.

“It was uncomfortable because I’m typically not anticipating the bell.”

The four recognized major belts were handed to one man for the first time during the headline event, which was postponed from June 1 due to a knee injury suffered by Montreal-based Beterbiev.

American Roy Jones Jr., who defeated Reggie Johnson to reclaim the WBA, WBC, and IBF belts in 1999, was the last undisputed light heavyweight champion.

In a high-quality fight between the powerful and aggressive Beterbiev and a more fluid opponent who landed eye-catching early blows and had the better of the early rounds, Bivol made himself a moving target.

At the halfway point, there was little conflict between the two, with Beterbiev likely to be behind but close calls between each round. The purists had plenty to choose from.

Bivol stayed put and fired back some potent combinations despite Beterbiev knowing he had to end the match with a bang in the final two rounds.

“I just congratulate Artur and his team, he deserves it”, Bivol, who expects a possible rematch, said after the fight.

“I did my job, I felt I could do better, I always feel I can do better, but that’s the opinion of the judges. He won”.

A fight for the ages! Congratulations to our Champion, Arthur Beterbiev on becoming undisputed ruler of the Lt. Heavyweight division. Congratulations to Dimitri Bivol for a fantastic performance that kept fight fans on the verge of awe. pic. twitter.com/mz2A67wKlb

After Jack Massey’s corner threw in the towel two minutes into the sixth round with the defeated Briton bleeding from a cut to the side of his nose, Australia’s Jai Opetaia previously kept his IBF cruiserweight world title.

The convincing win took Opetaia’s record to 26-0.

In a unanimous decision over whether to defend her WBC featherweight belt to Britain’s Raven Chapman, unbeaten Australian Skye Nicolson defeated Raven Chapman to win the first women’s world title fight in Saudi Arabia.