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Dmitry Bivol’s cruelty finished off Lyndon Arthur to extend his winning record to 22-0 and unify the WBA-WBO belts in a duel in Saudi Arabia / Photo: The Sun
Dmitry Bivol’s cruelty finished off Lyndon Arthur to extend his winning record to 22-0 and unify the WBA-WBO belts in a duel in Saudi Arabia. The World Champion Fighter of the Year finally returned to the ring to continue his winning streak.
Dmitry Bivol clearly will not repeat this honor, but he managed to fend off Lyndon Arthur’s challenge to defend his WBA light heavyweight world title and take Arthur’s IBO championship belt. Bivol dropped Arthur late in the eleventh round to earn a unanimous decision victory (120-107 on all three scorecards) on Saturday night at Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dmitry Bivol vs. Lyndon Arthur was the second of two championship fights as part of the eight-fight ‘Day of Reckoning’ that was part of the Pay-Per-View event. Anthony Joshua vs Otto Wallin and Deontay Wilder vs Joseph Parker headline an event featuring six heavyweight bouts.
It was never Bivol’s intention to serve 51 weeks in 2023 before his first fight following his 2022 Fighter of the Year campaign. The long-reigning WBA titleholder had been out of the ring for nearly 14 months when the bell rang, but there was no time necessary warm-up. Bivol immediately took the fight to Arthur, a first-time major title challenger, despite it being a WBA-IBO unification bout.
Bivol’s constant pressure forced Arthur to defend and go into retreat mode. The 32-year-old Manchester native is fighting for the third time this year, including a tenth-round knockout of Brazilian Braian Suarez in September, to claim the vacant IBO title he surrendered on Saturday. In that fight, Arthur had to overcome a knockdown in the first round to knock out Suarez in the full ten rounds to get his fourth straight win.
Bivol never gave the British boxer any hope of extending that record. The only question is whether he can secure his first stoppage win in nearly six years, when he stopped Sullivan Barrera in the 12th and final round of a title defense in March 2018. He had won eight straight fights before Saturday, including career-best win over pound-for-pound king Saul Canelo Alvarez last May in Las Vegas.
His right punch was on target for Bivol, to which Arthur was unable to respond for seven rounds. His first signs of life appeared in the eighth round, when Arthur was able to connect with a body shot. Bivol stopped punching, but was able to increase his rhythm in the final seconds of the round.
Bivol landed another flowing combination in the ninth round. Arthur started the round effectively on the ropes, but left himself open to Bivol’s jab and straight right to the body. Bivol followed with a right uppercut,