Saturday night in Monte Carlo on HBO, Eddie Hearn’s “Matchroom Boxing” promoted a world championship main event headlined by fast rising WBA light heavyweight belt holder Dmitry Bivol taking on little known Australian challenger Trent Broadhurst. With little to judge Broadhurst on other than common opponent Robert Berridge who stopped Broadhurst in five rounds and was stopped by Bivol earlier this year in four rounds, if anything Broadhurst had an aura of “Mystery” on his side. When adding Australian fighters recent success in the role of “Spoiler” most notably Jeff Horn dethroning Manny Pacquiao for the WBO welterweight title and on that same card Damian Hooper whose resume was similar to Broadhurst not only in quality of opposition but losses upset another undefeated Russian light heavyweight prospect Umar Salamov this past July, “Could it happen again” was certainly a possibility.
The only questions in my mind as they made their ring walks was “Will we see the Bivol who dismantled Samuel Clarkson and Cedric Agnew earlier this year? If so can even the Broadhurst who has twelve straight wins picking up two minor titles since his lone loss to Robert Berridge deal with that version of Bivol?” Once the bell rang those answers came quickly. The Australian fighter surprisingly went right towards Bivol, hoping to catch him off guard and set the bouts tempo. That game plan was quickly abandoned once Bivol connected with his first jab. In efforts to reset himself, Broadhurst attempted to tie Bivol up but a shoulder push from Dmirty caused Broadhurst to lose his balance and slip to the canvas. That slip would be incorrectly called a knockdown by referee Howard John Foster, so long as Bivol remained upright until the bell he already commanded a 10-8 lead.
Once the bout resumed, Bivol pressured Broadhurst forcing him backwards and despite a few wild hooks from Trent hoping to slow Bivol down a straight right from just before the bell sounded breaking through the guard of Broadhurst ended the affair. While Broadhurst was up shortly after the bout was called neither he nor his team disputed refereeHoward John Foster not bothering to make a count. It was an undebatable clean knockout victory for Dmitry Bivol who retained his title and imporved to 12-0 (10), suffering his second career defeat Trent Broadhurst now stands at 20-2 (12).
In his post fight press conference, when asked if he would have liked to have gone more rounds Bivol replied “I know people like knockouts be it first or 11th round I hope they are happy. That question was followed by his opinion on what part of his skillset does he want to improve “I want to focus on making my right hand stronger, its my best punch”. The third and final question pertained to his future aspirations for the light heavywieght division, he replied confidently but not arrogantly “Every fighter thinks they are thre best in their division and they should. I hope I am the best P4P one day”.
With his strong amateur pedigree, what we have seen from him thus far in twelve fights added with his surprisingly quick hands and defensive ability I personally think Dmitry Bivol is the fighter at 175lbs we should all be watching, even more than highly touted unbeaten knockout artist Arthur Beterbiev and Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
In underecard action
Heavyweight– Agit Kabayel improved to 17-0 (12) made the first defense of his”EBU European Title” defeating veteran Dereck Chisora by majority decision.
Official scores read 114-114, 115-113 and 115-114. With the loss Chisora now stands at 27-8 (19).
Featherwieght- Scott Quigg 34-1-2 def. Oleg Yefimovych 29-3-1 (16) via TKO 6.
Welterweight– Harlem Eubank 3-0 (1) def. Aboubeker Bechelaghem 12-9-1 via SD 4.
Middleweight– Diego Natchoo 12-1-4 (3) draw. Ignazio Crivello 2-5-1. via MD 6.
Official scores read 58-57, 57-57 and 57-57.
Super Lightweight– Bastien Bellesta 13-0-1 (1) def. Pal Olah 7-13-1 (5) via UD 6.
