The Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol fight was seven years in the making, designed – and conducted by Turki Alalshikha – to crown the undisputed airy heavyweight champion once and for all and determine supremacy at 175 pounds.

Perhaps this fight was also intended to bring a novel fighter into the best pound-for-pound discussion. And while Saturday’s fight in Riyad, Saudi Arabia certainly showed that Beterbiev and Bivol are among the sport’s elite, 12 rounds weren’t enough to really separate them in a fight that lived up to expectations.

Yes, Beterbiev deserved the majority decision – 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114 – but it was Bivol who seemed to be the public favorite. And while top boxing star Canelo Alvarez is seeking revenge against Bivol, who defeated him in May 2022, Bivol is now seeking the same against Beterbiev.

“I’m aware that I have to do everything perfectly and I don’t have any explanation because it might seem like an excuse,” said Bivol, who entered the ring as the No. 4 boxer in ESPN’s rankings. “…If I get this chance [for a rematch]Yes. This is my dream: to be undisputed.”

It seemed that 33-year-old Bivol was well on his way to fulfilling his dream. He was losing to Beterbiev from the outside and frustrating him with his excellent striking and footwork. Bivol caught many of Beterbiev’s infamous power shots in his high guard.

But this accumulation of shots, even blocked ones, took its toll. After all, 39-year-old Beterbiev entered the ring as the only boxing champion with a 100% KO percentage. Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KO) won the final three rounds on all three judges’ scorecards, prompting a reversal and leaving Bivol with a severely damaged left eye.

“He is powerful, very powerful,” said Bivol (23-1, 12 KO). “And you see I have a bruise on my hand [blocking punches]. He always beat it and it was extremely challenging. Even he has reached my eye.”

This fight was much closer to a decision than Oleksandr Usyk’s undisputed heavyweight victory over Tyson Fury in May, which also took place in Riyad. Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, will stage a heavyweight rematch on December 21 and will hopefully do the same for Beterbiev and Bivol next year.

Only then will it be possible to choose the biggest airy heavyweight of this generation.

If Bivol won, a potential rematch with Canelo was possible, as well as a rematch with Beterbiev. Now these plans no longer exist. After his September win over Edgar Berlanga, Canelo said Bivol “has that ability [beat Beterbiev]”, adding that he is only interested in Bivol winning, not Beterbiev.

The last meeting at the top of the airy heavyweight division was the pair of fights between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev in 2016-2017. Ward, like Beterbiev, won the first fight in a controversial way. Ward left no doubt in the rematch after an eighth-round TKO.

Now, boxing fans – along with Beterbiev and Bivol – also need clarity because both will be heading to the Hall of Fame when all is said and done.

“I wanted to box with more quality today,” Beterbiev said. “I don’t know why, but I didn’t like this fight. But one day I will be better. …If His Excellency [Alalshikh] I want [the rematch]then we can do it.”

On Saturday evening, DMITRY Bivol worked through his defeat to Artur Beterbiev in class, awarding victory to the winner while offering minimal excuses. As usual, certain trigger words are thrown around freely in the boxing community when someone loses, albeit in a close and subjective encounter.

As he spoke, former WBO super featherweight world champion Barry Jones had his own take on what happened, the aftermath and, most importantly, who did enough to win all four lithe heavyweight belts.

“I thought Bivol won by a few points, but I didn’t think it was a robbery either. The problem now is that “robbery” always appears in melee combat. If a fight lasts two rounds or two points in both cases, unless the round is clearly dominant and it can be clearly stated that there is no chance of losing [seven] rounds, it’s a robbery,” Jones said.

Styles breed fights, and while purists would prefer the WBA champion’s backstops and quick attacks, Beterbiev’s work, even in compact rounds, was not without its merits.

The 39-year-old is much more than just an offensive terminator. The 39-year-old used his own footwork and jabs to close down angles, catching the tiring Bivol in the end and landing some powerful punches to get the judges’ attention.

“There were a lot of close rounds,” Jones added. “It depends on what angle you look at it. Whether you watch what you like on TV at home, which unfortunately still matters. And also how much you place importance on aggression over work efficiency.

World championships are often won in a matter of moments. For newly crowned WBO super flyweight boss Phumelele “Truth” Cafu, the decisive moment of the fight came at the end of the seventh round.

On Monday night in the fifth round at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, the world title challenger from East London boxed outside his native South Africa for the first time. But the four-division titleholder, whose only previous loss was to fellow multi-division titleholder Kazuto Ioka almost four years ago, used his experience to settle in and looked to have regained control of the fight with five rounds remaining.

Then something changed. With the fight hanging in the balance, Cafu’s trainer Colin Nathan reminded him between rounds what he was really fighting for.

“You’re showing him too much goddamn respect,” Nathan said. – All this shit about wanting to buy your mother a house. You let him take it away.

This was exactly the kind of revival Cafu needed. The athlete dug deep and although Tanaka held forceful, Cafu found a little more later in the match and won by split decision with scores of 114-113 (Phil Austin), 113-114 (Jesse Reyes) and 114-113 (Waleska Roldan).

Coach Nathan, who just two days earlier had witnessed his IBF junior flyweight champion Sivenathi Nontshinga being mailboxed and held in nine frames by Masamichi Yabuki at the Aichi Sky Expo in Aichi, Japan, explained the reason for his motivational speech.

“He was at his best in the eighth round,” Nathan told The Ring. “Words can evoke emotions and mentally stimulate a warrior. Since boxing is a mental sport, I think tonight was won by mentality, not physicality, because Cafu was also tired in the last round, but he showed a lot of fortitude and bit down demanding on the mouthpiece.

“You have to say the right things at the right time to evoke the right emotions and stimulate the fighter mentally, and then of course it will trigger his physicality.”

It was a moment that would have made Joe Goossen proud. The American coach told Diego Corrales, after being peeled off the canvas twice in the 10th round of his first fight against Jose Luis Castillo, “You’ve got to piss him the hell off now.” Corrales did exactly the same, stopping Castillo in the same stanza.

Cafu was overcome with emotion as the scorecards were read.

“Yeah bro, it kind of hit me,” Cafu told The Ring shortly after the fight. “It’s crazy, we’ve been dreaming of this moment for so long and now it’s here. I didn’t even know what to say when they interviewed me because I was so excited, I was over the moon. It’s still like that because I don’t like being world champion. Not because I didn’t believe in myself, but when you grow up watching world champions, you think it’s out of your reach. You know you can achieve it, but at the same time it seems impossible because you are still working your way up. Today I showed that it is possible and that is why I say that I want to standardize the division. It may seem impossible right now, but who knows what might happen in the future.

The undefeated Cafu (11-0-3, 8 KO) was always unsafe with his left hook, but his right hand did just as much damage, sending Tanaka (20-2, 11 KO) to the canvas in the middle of the fight.

“I know I have a forceful left hook, but the truth is I have power in both hands,” Cafu said. “I was looking for a left hook, but I didn’t quite manage to catch it. I grabbed it with my right hand and thought it was gone. When I got to the finish line, I could see he was still there, so I didn’t want to take the risk and go all the way. I also didn’t want to end up on the canvas, so I had to stay serene and composed.

“It feels good. Tanaka is a four-time world champion. He is an elite warrior. Defeating him also makes me an elite fighter. I’m kind of grateful. His resume says it all: 21 fights before this fight and only one loss, so yeah, man, I’m one of the best now.”

No one was happier with the result than Nathan. He knew he had a talented boxer on his hands, but Cafu was giving a lot of experience to Tanaka, who had fought almost as many world title fights as the challenger in his entire career.

“I was very confident going in,” Nathan said. “I knew it would be a tough fight. I thought we would gain a lot more momentum after the knockdown, but Tanka has the heart of a fighter. He came and came.

“We were prepared. It was a tough camp, but I was very confident going into camp because I knew I had the right player with the right game plan and the right mentality.

“Because he is youthful and has never been this deep before, I think it will make him a better player. I think he will develop more. I still don’t think it’s a finished product, still something to work on. But I think he showed he can dig deep.

“He showed a lot of character, a lot of heart, a lot of will and desires. He really wants to improve his life. And I also kept coming home to the fact that he said he wanted to buy his mother a house. I told him this is the moment you can change your life. Your whole life. He dug deep and for me it was really fascinating and amazing to watch.

The burning question is when Cafu’s mother can expect a recent home. It seems like it’s still some time away.

“Not now, but in the future,” Cafu said. “This is a stepping stone. I think I’m heading in the right direction with this. Colin reminded me of this because Tanaka was trying to rip the dream away from me; not only my dream, but my mother’s dream. So yeah, man, that woke me up.

“My mom is so excited she can’t wait for me to come home. I can’t wait to go home too. But Japan did very well, man. People here have a lot of respect for me and now I have even more fans, it was very good.

As for the future, Cafu wants to further cement his name in the history books with unification struggles. This means a fight with either RING magazine champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KO), who also holds the WBC belt, or Fernando Martinez (17-0, 9 KO), holder of the WBA and IBF titles.

“I can’t say much. I’ll wait until my team sees what happens next,” he said. “But in the future I want to unify the division. The goal is to make history and I did that today. I want to create more stories in the future. There are some pretty good fighters in this division and I would like to fight them too.”