Year of Bivol – Newspaper Kommersant No. 205 (7406) dated 11/07/2022

Dmitry Bivol, one of the brightest Russian boxers, has added another resounding success to his track record. Having dealt with the outstanding Mexican Saul Alvarez in May, Bivol now very convincingly defeated his very dangerous compatriot Gilberto Ramirez on points, defending his World Boxing Association (WBA) world light heavyweight title (up to 79.4 kg), winning the 21st a match in a row in his professional career and proving with a duel in Abu Dhabi that he himself, like Alvarez, is an undoubted phenomenon of modern boxing.

ESPN began its summary of the central battle of the show in Abu Dhabi by stating, according to its experts, too conspicuous, too indisputable fact: there are still almost two months until the end of 2022, but it is already clear that the undisputed favorite in the fight for the title the best boxer was determined based on its results and it is unlikely that something can happen in the remaining weeks that will change the alignment. Under the favorite meant, of course, Dmitry Bivol, and the reasons why he deserved such a flattering description are quite obvious.

This year, many fighters had great – spectacular, important in terms of the prizes at stake, against titan rivals – fights. But only Dmitry Bivol had two such fights at once. In May, he, stepping to a new step in the hierarchy, separating the niche where just honest champions, just magnificent boxers live, into the niche where boxers live, from whom a special radiance emanates, finished off in Las Vegas with what was considered at that moment an unconditional genius , the undisputed leader of the genre Saul Alvarez, who looked like an almost ordinary opponent against the background of the Russian. Now Bivol’s victim is another insanely dangerous Mexican – tall, with long arms, unusual technique and a track record of 44 victories in a row.

But to inspire those who considered Gilberto Ramirez an even more serious threat to Dmitry Bivol than Saul Alvarez, who, whatever one may say, comes from an average weight (up to 72.6 kg), for whom the light heavy weight suits so-so anthropometrically, could only the first three round. In the start, the applicant was convinced that the speed, sharpness and intelligence from Bivol have not gone away and that if you gape with him a little, you will instantly fall under a tough attack. But in the next two, Ramirez behaved quite decently, and in any case, there was no absolute hopelessness from his boxing, which was quite energetic and prickly. In this sense, he has already jumped Alvarez, who never got out of a state of complete discomfort, into which he plunged from the first seconds.

However, the feeling that it would indeed be incredibly difficult for Dmitry Bivol to defend the champion title turned out to be an illusion. In the fourth round, the Russian for the first time demonstrated his trump card – the ability to “impose” attacks: the opponent thinks that he has already fought back, that the worst is over, but the second wave immediately follows the first wave. And there is no way to hide from her. Gong found Ramirez in a sad position: he thought only about how to fight back.

And then there were rounds similar to each other. They perfectly illustrated the huge difference in understanding boxing, in school, in the scale of talent between a champion and a challenger. Dmitry Bivol felt everything and saw everything. It exploded precisely at those moments when the explosion was logical, when it could not fail to bring results. And Gilberto Ramirez tried to anticipate these attacks, to come up with something to avoid holes, but he could not. And nothing prevented Bivol – neither the high growth of a left-handed opponent, nor his stubbornness. The Russian again, as in May, dominated his opponent, not giving the slightest reason to hope for something for those who were worried about the opponent.

Some glimmers of hope among these people could only appear at the end of the battle. In the ninth round, Gilberto Ramirez, having suddenly decided to take a risk, throw off his visor, delivered several good blows, but immediately received twice as much in return. But he finally managed to take the next round. And fans of the Mexican probably at that moment remembered that another signature quality of the Mexican is his vitality. Ramirez repeatedly won fights that were bad for him, adding at the finish line, waiting for the enemy to be covered with fatigue.

However, Dmitry Bivol that evening and with “physics” everything was in perfect order. Success in the tenth round was the last for Gilberto Ramirez. The remaining two three-minutes Bivol worked perfectly, and Ramirez met the final gong, suffering severely under fire from the champion. Winning with a devastating score of 117:111, 117:111 and 118:110, of course, all three referees gave Bivol. And the statistics from CompuBox complemented the visual impressions quite well, clarifying why the Russian so confidently took over.

If thrown punches were quoted in boxing, then Gilberto Ramirez would have won with a margin: he had two hundred more than Dmitry Bivol: 878 against 643. advantage, and solid – 131:107, Bivol had. And most importantly, if most of Ramirez’s punches, both accurate and inaccurate, looked blurted out just for show, then most of the champion’s punches, as is usually the case with him, demanded to be included in the highlights of the match. It was impossible not to pay attention to them.

And five minutes after the end of the fight, Dmitry Bivol described his plans for 2023. There was nothing amazing about them. Well, yes, at the top of the pyramid of preferences is the battle for the title of absolute world champion that has long been on the agenda. Of course, Bivol meant by him a fight with another Russian – who owns the light heavyweight belts of the International Boxing Federation (IBF), the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Artur Beterbiev, who is now recovering from meniscus surgery. But there is also a backup option – Saul Alvarez: he is also the absolute champion, in super middleweight (up to 76.2 kg), and you can “go down” to him, especially since the former boxing king thrown off the pedestal by Bivol seems to be still left no harmful thoughts of revenge.

Alexey Dospekhov