It was always going to be impossible for the event headlined by the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol for the undisputed light heavyweight championship to live up to the label of “the card of the century,” but boxing fans should be content with the card producing several thrilling and high-level contest. In the main event, Dmitry Bivol got his revenge, taking a majority decision over Beterbiev to become undisputed champion.
While the main story of the event will be Bivol’s win — which is expected to set up a third bout to break their 1-1 tie — there is plenty more to talk about from Joseph Parker’s continued resurgence to the clash between Callum Smith and Joshua Buatsi that got the card off to a roaring start.
Let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways from the event.
Bivol vs. Beterbiev is what great rivalries are made of
Betervbiev won the first fight after overcoming a strong Bivol start. That seemed to be the case again five rounds into the rematch. Bivol started strong, changing his approach of constant movement in the first fight to one of sitting down on his punches and forcing Beterbiev backward until Beterbiev started to get into a flow, picking perfect spots to throw punches whether they were banging off Bivol’s gloves or scoring cleanly to the head and body. This time, however, Bivol made the mid-fight adjustment, stringing together combinations as he went back to mixing in movement both in and out and laterally.
Bivol’s ability to make adjustments to the data he’d accumulated over their time in the ring together was the difference on Saturday. Now, with Turki Alalshikh having already said a Bivol win would lead to a rubber match, we get to find out which of these pound-for-pound elite fighters can take that information and turn it into a winning formula in the rubber match. Great fighters make for great rivalries and we’ve been treated to that through two fights, both scored exactly the same at 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114, each man winning once. They’re as tied as tied can be and boxing fans will get to see them do it again.
Joseph Parker’s feel-good story keeps rolling
Parker lost the chance to become a world champion for the second time in his career when IBF champ Daniel Dubois pulled out of the fight due to illness 48 hours ahead of the event. Rather than being pulled from the card entirely, Parker accepted an extremely late replacement in the form of Martin Bakole, who had been referred to by many as “the boogeyman of the heavyweight division.” It was a big risk for Parker, who strung together several victories, including his two most recent wins over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang, to be placed among the elite in the heavyweight division.
The risk proved to be minimal as Bakole was obviously not in fighting shape (weighing in at over 310 pounds after being 284 in his big win over Jared Anderson) and Parker was on top of his game. In less than two rounds, Parker landed a thudding blow to the side of Bakole’s head, putting him down and leading Bakole’s corner to stop the fight.
Had things gone poorly, Parker would have lost his place as a world title contender. But with another successful showing, he could be in position to even jump ahead of Dubois as the next challenger to unified champion and division kingpin Oleksandr Usyk. That’s a great position for a man who seemed to have peaked when he held the WBO title from 2016 to 2018.
Shakur Stevenson gets a much-needed stoppage win
Stevenson has seen his stock slip considerably in recent outings. Despite being one of the most technically gifted fighters in the sport, Stevenson has been slapped with the “boring” label after two of the worst main events in recent memory. When Stevenson’s original opponent, Floyd Schofield Jr., withdrew on fight week due to illness, Stevenson was left in something of a no-win position. Unlike Parker getting a fight with a dangerous and respected fighter like Bakole, Stevenson would now defend his WBC lightweight title against unheralded Josh Padley.
Stevenson was rightfully expected to make easy work of Padley, whose only notable win was over fringe prospect Mark Chamberlain in 2024. However, Stevenson’s style isn’t one of going for the quick kill, meaning it was a possibility that he could have instead safely outboxed Padley to take an easy victory. Stevenson did drag Padley along longer than necessary but he also kept up the pressure once he started to repeatedly hurt Padley to the body, scoring several knockdowns until Padley’s corner stopped the fight.
It’s now on Stevenson to figure out a way to get the kind of big opponents a fighter of his talents deserves, and to put on a show that proves he’s a fighter worth watching, not just someone with elite skills and no instinct to be great.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. continues to show his maturation
This past summer, Ortiz overcame two knockdowns to score a majority decision win over Serhii Bohachuk. That was a win that answered a lot of questions about a fighter who was tagged years ago as a future world champion. Ortiz showed guts and heart in overcoming those knockdowns and continuing to take out a very capable offense-first fighter.
If beating Bohachuk was taking down the bull, Ortiz’s win over Israil Madrimov on Saturday proved he has the skills to handle a matador just as well. Madrimov’s constant defensive movement proved an early nuisance for Ortiz early as Ortiz could not track him down to let his punches flow. Rather than allow that frustration to fester into a losing approach, Ortiz adjusted and began to punish Madrimov for his lack of offensive output before pulling away and taking the fight on the scorecards.
It’s rare to see a young fighter handle two extremely different challenges back-to-back and show his capabilities for adjustments against high-level fighters but that’s exactly what Ortiz has done after besting Bohachuk and Madrimov.
It’s time to accept that Agit Kabayel is legit
Kabayel announced his arrival as a player in the heavyweight division with his December 2023 stoppage win over favored Arslanbek Makhmudov and followed that up by stopping Frank Sanchez in May 2024. There were reasons to question the quality of those wins as Makhmudov has proven less than elite and Sanchez was battling a significant knee injury. On Saturday, Kabayel should have ended all doubts by taking the fight to Zhilei Zhang before scoring the sixth-round stoppage.
Zhang hits like a truck and dropped Kabayel in the fifth round. Despite the knockdown, Kabayel went right back to bringing the fight to Zhang, battering the big man to the body constantly until Zhang took a knee and did not rise before the count of 10. Kabayel is here and he’s a legitimate threat for anyone in the heavyweight division. There’s no more denying it.
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