Boxing

'Young fighters need to look!' - Eddie Hearn believes Dmitry Bivol performance can be template

DAZN

23, Feb 25

'Young fighters need to look!' - Eddie Hearn believes Dmitry Bivol performance can be template

Dmitry Bivol's performance in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev can be a template for younger fighters to follow, with Eddie Hearn delighted by the star's triumph on Saturday.

The light-heavyweight star avenged defeat in the pair's first bout with a majority decision win at Riyadh Season's The Last Crescendo to become undisputed champion.

Read more | Relive all the action from Riyadh Season's The Last Crescendo as Dmitry Bivol and Joseph Parker triumph

It saw Bivol make up for a narrow loss last October that courted controversy from many ringside, and saw Beterbiev suffer the first defeat of his professional career.

Speaking afterwards, Matchroom boss Hearn expressed his admiration for how the former managed to dictate the flow of the fight against a modern-day great.

"I think a lot of people felt like he won the first fight, to be honest," he told The Stomping Ground. "But it was a very close fight.

"When I heard the 114-114, I was thinking don't do that to us again. It was one of the best performances I've ever witnessed.

"I think he won the first two rounds, and then Beterbiev won the next three. But it was the way he won them, and the speed he was coming out with.

"He was doing all the things he did in [the championship rounds] last time round. Young fighters need to look at how he made Beterbiev follow him around.

"To do that to a guy like that, a beast and one of the greatest fighters of our generation, that's the kind of performance that cements you as a pound-for-pound king."

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