Dimitry Yuryevich Bivol vs Santos Saúl Álvarez Barragán
Dimitry Yuryevich Bivol vs Artur Asilbekovich Beterbiev (rigged)
If ever a boxing match needed to be supervised by a national boxing commission (US Boxing Commission) it's this bout.
The level of Russophobia happening throughout the western world is staggering. Dimtry Bivol didn't start a war, has zero say-so in any war - hasn't bombed nor killed anyone, and has no relation to Vladimir Putin or any other Russian official involved in the decision making regarding the current conflict in Ukraine.
In it you have a challenger already at a deficit before the fight even started in being the so-called "Russian" - Dimitry Bivol who in actuality was born in Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan in 1990 (1 year before the USSR was dissolved), a republic of the USSR/Soviet Union at the time of his birth - as was Vitali Klitschko born in Belovodskoe, Kyrgyzstan , too, 1971 - which by that metric makes Klitschko far more "Russian" than Bivol - they were born a mere 70 miles apart.
Along with the facts of controversial decisions in Las Vegas that have left those of us watching -staggering backwards ("which fight were the judges watching, couldn't have been the one I just saw?") at the flagrant very bad call(s).
The reality is when a fighter becomes popular (as Canelo Alvarez has become) with a particular audience and brings in tourists to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, the playing field is severely tilted in their direction before the bout even started - we've seen Alvarez come out on top in decisions that some of us thought went otherwise not in his favor.
The reality is boxing is a corrupt, unregulated event every bit as corrupt as it was back in my dad's day of boxing (the 1930's).
Back in Philadelphia, there was this low life mafia criminal promoter/manager name Frank "Blinky" Palermo who probably fixed ever fight he ever had anything to do with. He owned fighter like you own your shoes - 6-7 world champions and saw the value of having them take dives and when they didn't work (a fighter wouldn't go along with it) he'd simply bribe judges to throw the results in the direction he wanted - at considerable profit$ for all involved.
The amount of money is boxing to day is staggering - fighters like Mayweather (in his day) and Alvarez having purses of $32,000,000 per fight - purses for one fight that previous heavyweight champions never saw in their entire careers - they never came close to $32,000,000 - Joe Louis was heavyweight champion of the world for 12 years and died virtually penniless (a doorman).
For me it takes on something very personal, as my ultimate dream as a kid growing up in Philadelphia was to be a boxer - my postpartum psychotic mother would go to the boxing gyms in town and tell trainers (Quinzel McCall & George Benton) that they didn't have her permission to train me.
So, it's deeply personal that any man who risks it all to step into the boxing ring to potentially be seriously injured by multiple blows to the head do so on equal footing - regardless of his popularity/fame. In reality, professional boxing isn't a 'sport' at all - it's warfare.
I don't need to go on and on regarding corruption in boxing, we all know how dark it is behind the scenes - what's needed is a federally established commission with final oversight of all the other state boxing commissions in the US.
A former Supreme Court Justice (Louis Brandeis) quoting from James Bryce's 1880 book said that, "Sunlight was the best of disinfectants" as a remedy for social, political, industrial diseases. Well, no truer words were ever spoken in regards to boxing.
If elected, I will finished what was started by Senator John McCain and forward legislation that will finally establish a US Boxing Commission - and I won't let the matter rest until it is established.
And, regarding this particular fight, if judged fairly, I've got Dimitry Bivol 'beating the breaks off ' of a one dimensional Canelo Alvarez - a 12 rd. unanimous decision - Bivol has never lost a fight, not even on the scorecards - he's won hands-down all of his fights. Canelo Alvarez's boxing style doesn't impress me in the slightest.
And I put my money 'where my mouth is.'
And, lastly, I'd like to see one of the sanctioning bodies bring back 15 round boxing matches in title bouts. So often many of today's fighters have the audacity to compare themselves to great fighters of yesteryear - well, unless they've gone 15 rounds - or put in the training to go 15 rounds, the notion of comparing themselves to the greats of old - from Jack Johnson to the last 15 round championship fight between Iron Mike Tyson & Tyrell Biggs in 1987 - that's absurd.
Update - May 8 2022: this is the official scorecard for the fight. A robbery in the making if they all saw Alvarez winning the rounds posted here - what fight were they watching, not the same one millions of others around the world saw? These three need to be called before a senate committee to explain this (or cool their heels in a jail cell - I smell a rat).
And, on October 12, 2024, Bivol is gonna give Beterbiev a world class boxing lesson - he's never gonna land a meaningful punch. His power means zero to a world class boxer like Bivol. I don't know about you folks, but I tune in to watch a boxing match, not fighting, two guys in gladiator academy beating each others brains out -mindlessly -boxing and fighting are two distinctly different things. Normally I never lay odds, but, in this instant I wanted to put my mouth where my mouth is - so I gave the casino odds. In over 50 years of betting on select boxing matches I've got a 95% success rate. I've been watching boxing with my dad since I was a mini-me of 4 years old. We used to go all the fights in Philadelphia in the early 1960's. I've seen the best of them and Beterbiev is just another big-banger who needs you standing right in front of him to get off - then he'll bang on you like you're the heavy bag - but let your hands go, move off the line and he's just another marginal big-banger like all the rest.
The first 12 guys that Beterbiev knocked out where either Uber drivers or males nurses (with the exception of Tavoris Cloud who was on the serious downside of his career after losses to Bernard Hopkins & Adonis Stevenson). I've watched most of his fights, and he don't look all that tough to me.
This bastard coated bastard, with bastard is why it's now (more than ever before) mandatory that we have a U.S. Boxing Commission - with teeth to put SOB's like his sorry ass in jail for bribing judges and rigging boxing matches when he tries this crap on US soil.
turki "the trashman" al-sheikh
This piece of worthless flesh rigged a once in a lifetime championship boxing match right before the world's eyes in favor of the muslim fighter (Beterbiev) in Saudi Arabia (to have his Allah Akbar moment before the world), who was beaten by Bivol. The absolute audacity to pull something of this magnitude is staggering.
It was clear to anyone watching the fight (review the punch stats) that Bivol was the winner. Five ex-world champion boxers called the fight for Bivol.
Each judge for that particular fight should have their finances, emails, text messages investigated by the FBI (whom I plan to contact) to look into this as it involved world wide wagering - which is a federal crime if the fight was in fact rigged in favor of the muslim fighter in this vilest of muslim nations (and I've very pro-Palestinian). Aside from my very deep disdain for MBS to be more specific - who had a journalist that was once his friend murdered and then cut into pieces inside of the Saudi embassy in Tukiye - they're just shitty people in general - this so-called royal family.
To reiterate: A federal crime was committed if in fact the outcome was rigged with bribes paid to the 3 judges on this sporting event involving wagering within the United States. It isn't some, "oh well, that's boxing for ya" cause it happened in Saudi Arabia - no, Sportbooks all over the world took in wagers on the fight and millions of dollars were basically stolen if the outcome was a forgone conclusion for the muslim fighter - Beterbiev - who was shocked that he'd won (the guy behind him whispers on his ear to yell, "Allah Akbar" which he does to cheers in the audience. In the last round this lowlife piece of garnage [turki] could barely contain himself jumping out of his front row seat walking close to the ring (watch the video) clearly way too emotionally invested in the outcome.