Dmitry Bivol Scores Dominant Decision Win Over Ramirez

In a performance every bit as dominant as his upset win over Canelo Alvarez back in May, WBA  light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol was on his game, again and scored a 12 round unanimous decision win over top contender, Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez Saturday night.

Bivol was the superior tactician using a strong jab and good right-left combinations throughout the fight and won a lopsided decision 118 – 110 and 117 – 111 x 2 in the Matchroom Boxing main event in Abu Dhabi, UAE

A masterclass ✨ @bivol_d#BivolZurdo pic.twitter.com/CgqhugOIKq

— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) November 5, 2022

Ramirez, who had been unbeaten and had won all four of his fights at light heavyweight, came in as the WBA’s number one contender. However, after some early success out of the southpaw stance with a right jab and some lefts, Bivol seemed to figure things out with lateral movement and his own jab and Ramirez never could re-adjust.

Bivol, now 21-0, 11 KOs, piled up the points scoring effectively throughout the middle rounds of the fight and it became obvious that Ramirez would need some kind of big punch to turn things back in his favor. That never came, as Bivol continued to keep his distance and out-work and out-land the Mexican.

“He fought a different fight than Canelo. I spent a lot of time to be prepared and confident in this fight…he’s a southpaw and does a lot of body punches. He doesn’t throw one punch. He throws 3 or 4 punches,” Bivol said to DAZN post fight.

“The Lion is not the biggest animal in the jungle, but he is king. Yeah, Zurdo is bigger than me, that doesn’t matter.”

What’s Next For Bivol?

With the win, Bivol now sets his sights on a possible four belt undisputed title fight with fellow Russian Artur Beterbiev of who holds the WBC /IBF/WBO titles. Beterbiev is expected to fight Britain’s Anthony Yarde in the first part of 2023 and then, potentially a Bivol battle could be on the horizon.

As for Ramirez, now 44-1, 30 KOs, the former WBC super middleweight champ, he was humbled on Saturday night by a man who continues to demonstrate he’s one of the best fighters in the world.

Earlier in the night in the co-freature bout England’s Chantelle Cameron retained her unified junior welterweight championships with a hard fought unanimous decision win over American Jessica McCaskill. Scores of 97-93, 96-94 x 2 gave Cameron, 17-0, 8 KOs,the victory over McCaskill, who is the undisputed women’s world welterweight champion. But, she was moving down in weight to take the payday and fight Cameron on the Bivol Ramirez undercard. Cameron out-landed McCaskill, now 12-3, narrowly on CompuBox stats 134-111 and 46-28 on jabs.

Rakhimov becomes world champ

Also on the under card Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov of Kazakstan scored a 9th round TKO over England’s Zelfa Barrett to capture the vacant IBF junior lightweight title . Barrett was in control for most of the fight against the Kazak unbeaten, number one contender, but then seemed to hurt his leg in the ninth round. And, Rakhimov quickly took advantage, scoring two knockdowns. The second of those caused the referee to stop the fight.

The win makes Rakhimov 17-0-1, 14 KOs and puts him in the mix for another possible title shot at 130 lb. This as Shakur Stevenson was the WBO and WBC champion, but lost his titles when he missed weight prior in his last fight in October. He is not expected to stay at 130 lb.