This weekend, the eyes of the boxing world will once again be firmly fixed on the dunes of Arabia for Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol 2, aka ‘The Last Crescendo’. The two light heavyweights are set to lock horns for a second time on a stacked PPV card that includes the likes of Daniel Dubois , Joseph Parker , Hamzah Sheeraz , Zhilei Zhang , and Shakur Stevenson . Just like their first fight back in October 2024, this weekend’s enormous world championship rematch is expected to be another razor-close affair – but who got the nod the first time around? Who won the first fight between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol? Heading into that first undefeated champion vs undefeated champion showdown in October, fans were expecting the fight to be a back-and-forth chess match; and back-and-forth it certainly was.
Dmitry Bivol won the opening two rounds on all three of the judges’ scorecards, Artur Beterbiev won the third round in a similar clean sweep, with the fourth round being split – two judges gave it to Beterbiev, one to Bivol. Beterbiev clearly won the next two rounds (five and six) and claimed the seventh 2-1 on the judges’ scorecards – Bivol then rallied back to win rounds eight and nine in unanimous fashion. The result was hanging in the balance as the fight entered its championship rounds; and this was when Artur Beterbiev piled on the pressure, winning the final three rounds (10-12) on all three of the judges’ scorecards.
Artur Beterbiev ultimately got the .
