The Ariel Helwani Show - Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 Post-Fight Show: Trilogy fight MUST happen

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

The Boys in the Back are joined by Uncrowned's Keith Idec to react to a massive night of fights from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.The conversation begins with Dmitry Bivol's redemption, beating Artur Beterbiev in their rematch to become undisputed light heavyweight champion (06:13).Next they touch on showcase performances by Joseph Parker (11:01) and Shakur Stevenson (14:39), playing matchmaker for each in their respective divisions.Finally, they discuss controversial scorecards in the fight between Carlos Adames and Hamzah Sheeraz (18:41), which resulted in a draw, and Agit Kabayel's big win over Zhilei Zhang (20:41). 

Welcome in to the Uncrowned post show for Arthur Betterbiev versus Dmitri Bevil 2. And we just saw Dmitri Bevil defeat Betterbiev by majority decision, incredibly close fight, an incredible fight though. And new. And new. I was gonna say I'm Connor Burke, throwing alongside my man, as you know, Eric Jackman. You gotta throw the lower thirds up. You gotta let him know who we are. But yes, and new. Demetri Bevil gets it done in a very close fight. A tale of two fights almost. It was like, Bevil wins a couple rounds. Better BF wins a long stretch of rounds. And then it's a back and forth affair down the stretch. A lot of momentum shifts, a lot of great

moments, but ultimately Bevil comes out victorious and walks away with the Pirate's Share, the Treasure, all the belts he's got at all. They're trying to throw another one over his shoulder at one point. I mean the guy gets it done and now we have a new undisputed champion. Could not deserve it more. Humble in defeat last time, humble in victory this time. Saying that he dealt with a little bit of inflammation, some injuries in the lead up to it, wants some time to rest, but man, when the expectations are up here for that first fight and it delivered, I thought, let's do it again. Expectations up here for the second fight and it delivered again.

Almost a mirror, not quite a mirror image, right? But let's do it again. Expectations up here for the second fight. And it delivered again. Almost a mirror, not quite a mirror image, right? Because the first one, the story was more Better BF coming on late. And this time it was Bevil who at the later rounds just looked to have that spring in his step, getting in and out, doing the busier work and the power and the aggression and the ruthlessness

that you expect from Better BF kind of just waned and waned and waned. Yeah, I mean it was just like rounds four, five and six from Better Biev. It looked like Bevil had nothing. I mean as we were watching it was just like the work rate of Better Biev and compared to the work rate of Bevil and the power shots when he was landing and just like he had him moving the entire time. It was just like man, Better Biev is going to run away with this thing because late he's probably going to have the advantage.

Yeah, the activity that we saw in the first two rounds, the springiness in the step, the footwork, the movement, it kind of disappeared in those middle rounds, and then all of a sudden they came back and it completely shifted the momentum of the fight. When Bevil was there to be hit in those middle rounds, now he wasn't. And better beiev was chasing him and not finding success and not able to corner him. I don't know what changed there.

I don't know what the like tactical difference was between those middle rounds and the late part of the fight, but it was just a completely different fight. Once his footwork got back in play, he looked like the better fighter and he deserved that win. He stopped backing up. He started sitting down on the punches more and he just started putting up more volume, it really was.

We said it before the fight started, it's just like this is why we love these 12 round championship bouts because there's just so many stories, there's so many evolutions as the fight goes on and when it's at this highest level, like it is between- We thought it was done, literally. I was just like, we gotta see something

from people here, right? And then he just slowly gets back into it, and you're like, okay, now he's only down two rounds. Well, now he's down one. And a lot of people were scoring it live for Bevel. Like, he had the advantage in the later rounds. It really is just what makes boxing so great. You get these long, drawn out stories told

over the course of the 12 rounds. I think it should be pointed out that you and I scored it for better be of in a close fight I scored it a hundred to 113 you scored it the same way a lot of these rounds toward the end were kind of like Which way are you going? You can lean different directions Incredibly close fight incredibly close fight and I think whoever would have come out victorious there would have deserved it Just an amazing performance by both guys. Yeah, I mean when they said 114, 114 and then they started reading out the second judge's scorecard, I thought we were going to get just a straight draw.

Yeah, like we saw earlier in the night. Yeah, with Carlos Adamas and Hamza Shiraz, it's just like if we got a draw, it's just like what do you do with it from there? It's just like, if we got a draw, it's just like, what do you do with it from there? It's just like, now it's 101. Like, does BetterBF have any interest in even running it back again? It's just, a draw would have really put a wrench in it. Now I think you have to do a third fight. Yeah, it's his belt now. Bevel's undisputed.

And I think BetterBF deserves another opportunity at it. Absolutely. What we saw earlier in the broadcast was Turkey Alsheikh saying that Benavides, what he said was he wants Benavides to fight the winner. So I don't know, look don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna turn down a Bevo versus Benavides fight like I'm all in on that. But it feels like Better BF deserves deserves another crack at it. He said it in the post fight interview you know he's just like I don't want to talk about the

decision I don't I don't really care about that. Like it's okay that I lost, but now it's my time to come back. And I just can't imagine that Better Be-Up wants to come back and not be fighting for the undisputed title that he just lost. I mean, it's his first professional loss and he's 40 years old.

Like you think that after giving Bevel another shot, you feel like he deserves the trilogy. Winner of that, then we move on. Well, especially considering that Bevil saying he wants to take some time to rest, right? Because let's say they get back in there quick, maybe he can do a Benevita's fight while Better B take some time off. That might work. That might work in some certain scenario. And then he gets to fight for those belts after the fact.

Considering that Bevil is going to take some time off, to me it feels like the appropriate move is they come back against each other. But I think there will be many boxing people out there that really wanna see Benavides get that opportunity. Yeah, I mean, what can you say about these two dudes though? After being in there for 24 rounds together, two majority decisions, like it's just like, the difference in them is like this.

It's just insane. It'll be a round different. They do it 10 times the difference in them is like this. It's just insane. It'll be a round different. They do it 10 times and it'll be a round different. It's just how this is. I know, and I imagine if we go to a third one, we'll probably end up going all 12 rounds again. They'll have 108 minutes of fight time together. It'll be like the closest trilogy in the history of ever.

That's our thoughts on it. You just watched it with us on the Watch Party. Now we're breaking it down a little bit. Let's bring in a third perspective. Let's bring in our man, Keith Idick, fantastic writer for uncrowned.com. Keith, we're fresh off of it. Incredibly close fight, Bevel and new.

Welcome in brother. What did you make of that one? Hey, how you guys doing? Appreciate you having me. I thought that he won 115, 113. And as I'm sure you guys started to feel by about the fourth round, it looked like Betterbiev was going to wear Bivol down and eventually stop him the way that it was looking. And he just completely turned the fight around in the eighth round. He had a very strong eighth round.

He backed up Betterbiev. He regained control of the fight himself. And I think he was just in such incredible physical condition. He was able to get off punches in a way that kept Betterbiev on his back foot at times when people probably did not expect that. Betterbiev himself was worn down a little bit, and Bivol just did enough to outpoint him, I thought. And it was, in my opinion, guys, a much more entertaining fight than their first fight. And I thought the right guy won. What did you make of that switch that happened in the middle of the fight? Do you believe it was strategic? Do you believe it was just catching a second win and Betterbiev losing his? What did you make as that was unfolding into the later rounds? Yeah, I think what you just said, I think it was a combination of him gaining his second wind and Betterbiev getting tired a little

bit because Betterbiev had, you know, expended a lot of energy trying to get him out of there because I think that really seemed to be his plan because he started pouring it on in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh rounds. You know, the seventh round was a solid round for Bivol as well, but you know, definitely the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds, Betterbiev was really taking it to Bivol and it looked like he was getting worn down and he wasn't going to be able to take that type of power for the rest of the fight. And then he just, this resurgence that he had in this, you know, started in the seventh

round a little bit, but then certainly in the eighth round and just completely regained control of the fight, which he had in the first two rounds. I thought the first two rounds were very strong for Bivol and he fought similarly to the way that he did in 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. So it was a great performance from him, a career defining performance from him and it makes everyone I think more excited about a third fight than they were about a second fight. Okay, this is, I mean, you beat me to it.

This is the story, this is the topic on everybody's mind. I'm going to ask you here, what is the next fight for Dmitry Bivol? What is the next fight for Artur Bedeviev? What is the next fight for David Benavides? How does this picture play out? Yeah, they're gonna fight again. I mean, there's just too much money at stake and they're already committed to it, frankly.

So this fight, look, for all intents and purposes, what Turkey Al-Ashique and the GEA in Saudi Arabia want, they have the financial wherewithal to make happen. They want this fight to happen a third time. You know, David Benavidez can, you know, he can stay busy in another fight. It's unfortunate for Benavidez because he flew all the way over there and if Better BF would have won, that would have been the natural fight next because he's the interim champion for the WBC and the mandatory challenger and it

would have made perfect sense. And people will want to see him fight the winner of the third fight. It's just going to take a little while longer. And then on the PBC side of it, or maybe even in conjunction with Riyadh season, he gets a fight to stay busy in between. Probably not someone as good, or not probably, certainly not someone as good as David Morrell and just try to keep Benavides busy for his second fight of the year and then maybe you know early in 2026 we say Benavides fight the winner of the third fight. Yeah I was gonna even ask if do we even have

Benavides fight in the interim? Do we just have him wait and then once the third fight gets bugged he's waiting ringside and he gets the winner automatically? The only reason I would say no is because I think too much time will have elapsed to allow that to happen and you don't want him to get stale. Because it sounded to me like Bivol is dealing with some significant injuries. He said he was on anti-inflammatories throughout this training camp, so he's going to need an extended break because obviously they fought very quickly after October 12th, particularly for Bedebrevria space in his career

I mean, it was a quick turnaround for him So I think they'll take some real time off here and fight maybe in the fall mid fall to late fall And then early in 2026 they'll the winner would be there to fight Benavides in a fight that people would really want to see so I think you can't have been a VDs waiting around from February 1st of 2025 until Whenever he might get the winner. It's just too long a period of time. So I think if you get him a reasonable opponent and get him in there with someone that and look David Benavidez could beat anyone. I don't mean it in that way. It's just you know get him someone reasonable where he's not in some sort of dog fight like he sort of was against Morel even though he convincingly won.

That was a tough fight. David Benavidez called it the toughest fight of his career. even though he convincingly won. That was a tough fight. David Benavidez called it the toughest fight of his career. He told David Morell that to his face after the fight and let him know how much he respected him. I think people would want to see that again. I don't think that's the wisest thing for Benavidez and it's not really necessary in the sense that he won convincingly, even though it was a tough fight. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, let's move to a wild story in the co-main event where we saw Daniel Dubois get ill during fight week fallout. Martin Boccoli jump in on extremely short notice, show up less than 24 hours before fight time. Joseph Parker able to get it done, second round, glancing shot off the top of the head. What does this do for Joseph Parker stock? I think it's sores.

I mean, you have to be realistic as well. You know, Martin Boccoli, I felt really good about my own physique when I saw Martin Boccoli get into the ring tonight. So, uh, I don't know what he was doing exactly. And he, and of course, to be fair to him, he wasn't in training camp. He was supposed to fight May 2nd, you know, and so he's about 40 pounds heavier than his last fight. So, um, you know, he wasn't in fighting shape.

But I give him a lot of credit. You guys know the story. He took the fight on Thursday. He didn't arrive in Riyadh until 2 a.m. on the day of the fight. It was basically 23 hours later. He's in the ring when he had no inclination that he was going to be in the ring three days before that. I mean, it's a pretty incredible story.

Yes, he was paid well, but it was a big risk for him to take. You know, takes a shot on the top of the head that knocked his equilibrium off and there he is. So, but I think from his perspective, I think he should be allowed to, even though he lost tonight, he should be allowed to go back into this eliminator with Efed Jogba because, you know, he, I want to say he saved the show. I mean, he was paid handsomely and everything, but he, you know, he did something that he did not have to do. So I don't think he should be penalized for that, particularly because he lost to someone

so good. You know, Joseph Parker is, has had an amazing resurgence himself. So yeah, I think it was a great win for Parker. He hadn't fought in quite some time and I hope they're able to reschedule this Dubois fight. Although I'm hearing rumblings that Dubois might go back, not back, he might go into a rematch with AJ because there's too much money there.

So maybe Parker will wind up having to wait. So if they go rematch with AJ for Dubois, do you think there's any chance that Parker would go into the fight with Usyk? Or do you think Usyk is waiting to see how this all plays out? Yeah, that's a reasonable path to see happening here and Parker deserves it at this point. I mean look at what he's done

over the last year and a half. It's pretty incredible turnaround from a guy who was, you know, knocked violently knocked out by Joe Joyce whose career fell apart thereafter. But yeah, I mean Joseph Parker deserves a lot of... Boccoli's coming off... Now look, I think the Boccoli-Jared Anderson fight was more a reflection of Jared Anderson than Martin Boccoli. Martin Boccoli can obviously punch, there are all these gym stories about him violently knocking guys out and sparring and that's why people don't want to fight him. I'm sure there's some truth to that. And he is a huge puncher. But you know, Jared Anderson is just not,

he was a bully who ascended to a certain point in the sport when he was beating inferior opponents and taking guys out. And then when he came up against someone who could punch and he couldn't get out of there, he didn't know how to react to it. And he kind of, yeah, he just not equipped to win at the elite level. Then when he saw him fight last, it was ringside in New York last Friday, he won convincingly, but that was not an impressive performance.

He made a lot of the same defensive mistakes that he's previously made, the types of mistakes that cost him against Martin Boccoli. My point overall, guys, is that B Bacoli, while dangerous, might have been overhyped a little bit because he beat an undefeated American fighter who had some hype behind him, but was probably overrated and was never going to ascend to where people thought. Yeah, and I think we saw that the difference in the experience and the skill in this fight. Moving one more down, we saw we saw a showcase fight for Shakur Stevenson. Another kind of wild story stepping in on short notice.

I'll start with the performance from Shakur. Was this what he needed? What would you grade this in terms of what Shakur Stevenson needs? Now we're coming off the heels of being booed and the stock taking a little bit of a hit. How would you say that this one lines up with what he needed? Yeah, Shakur desperately needed a stoppage in this fight. It looked like he was going to take Josh Padley out earlier than he did. And man, kudos to Josh Padley.

He's at work installing solar panels on Tuesday and somehow he's in the ring with Shakur Stevenson four days later. I mean, that's a man's man. He was handsomely rewarded again You know, he was his purse was was seven figures and Turkel she gave him a house as part of his compensation package I mean, it's pretty It's pretty incredible. So, you know That's that's what boxing is about though guys you guys well know this I mean it's incredible that that you can

That's what boxing is about though guys. You guys well know this. I mean it's incredible that you can change the life of not only your life, the lives of your family by just taking that one phone call that you didn't see coming. And look, he took a beating tonight. There's no two ways about it. But he gave it everything he had. He's just overmatched against a guy who's at an elite level skill-wise, not the biggest puncher in the world. And you hate to see a guy take the kind of punishment that Josh Padley took tonight. I would rather see a guy, and I'm sure you guys would as well, rather see him get knocked out in the third or fourth round and call it a night and live to fight another day. And he will live to fight another day, but he took a lot of punishment tonight to the head and to the body, winds up going down three times.

But Shakur did need that type of performance because you know what happened against Artem Haritonian and particularly the Edwin De Los Santos fight damaged his reputation almost beyond repair in some circles and he really needed a convincing win. Look, it would have been better if that win came against Floyd Schofield. I don't know what is going on in the world with Floyd Schofield. I mean, he's being poisoned. People are stealing pages from his passport. There's a lot of wild stuff going on there, or imaginary stuff going on there, I suppose. But look, it would have been better if he beat Schofield, who was a big underdog as

well. Not a 40 to 1 or 50 to 1 underdog, but he was a big underdog too. So yeah, he enhanced his stock. And now, of course, where we are now, they're on the same schedule. Tank is fighting a week from tonight. And that's a fight in a lightweight division that people will want to see. And hopefully we'll get it later this year. I mean, there's no guarantee because of the varying business interests, the competing

business interests, I should say. And hopefully we get it though. Is another concern for that, it was alluded to on the broadcast, Shakur was grimacing and shaking out his left hand after each one of his punches that he threw. We know the history of the injury there. Is that a concern with him

potentially getting the tank fight? Yeah, I just think he's gonna need some time off and he's having a lot of issues with his hands because that's really what happened in the De La Santos fight. He should have withdrawn from that fight and it's, look, once you walk up those steps, whatever happens happens and then it's your problem to deal with after that. But he should have pulled out of that fight. He had a shoulder injury, he had elbow injuries, he had hand injuries. He should not have fought that night, but it is what it is.

So he's taking the, you know, the criticism and understandably so. But it looks like these hand issues are going to follow him now. And you know, that that's what it was like for Floyd Mayweather. He had to figure out some sort of treatment plan that that helped him manage the pain because you can only have so many surgeries, obviously. So hopefully that's not something that prevents them from fighting later this year, but Tank is a two time a year fighter. So is Shakur Stevenson.

So you would hope that if Tank handles his business a week from tonight, that they could at least have some serious discussions about bringing that fight together finally toward the end of this year. Yeah, it makes all the sense in the world. Speaking of the hands, we saw the fight between Adames and Sharez.

It seemed like his hand was bothering him. It seemed like that was the result when he took off the glove at the end. And now, obviously, I haven't been able to follow what happened medically. Maybe there's an update on that. But his hand was swollen, and that jab just completely stopped. Are you hearing anything about what that looked like after the fact?

I mean I saw it obviously but I haven't heard any updates because the fights thankfully we had such a great That's another thing guys that the pace of this event was was fantastic Nobody's wait a lot of time pontificating and you know There were some minor breaks and of course Turkey Al Sheik spoke at the end Which I think that's your right to do and you pay for all the fights I guess you know, there were some minor breaks and of course, Turkey Al-Sheikh spoke at the end which I think that's your right to do when you pay for all the fights I guess, you know. But yeah, so the pace was amazing. And so we haven't gotten an update yet. I'm sure we will relatively soon.

But I don't want to take a – Carlos Adamas won that fight, period. Yeah, we scored a form as well. Yeah, so I mean, it's unfortunate that that happened to him. I thought he won eight rounds, maybe nine. I didn't really think that Shiraz was as good as people were making it out because of what I saw against Ammo Williams. He was hurt badly early in that fight. I didn't know that he had the whiskers, so to speak, to handle Carlos Adamas, who's an

underrated fighter now he had he held up I mean because he got hit cleanly a lot and he and his chin did hold up so I give him credit for that but he lost the fight so whether he was hurt or not you know I don't know that it certainly impacted his jab I'm not gonna discount that but I don't think he would have beaten Carlos Adamas even if he had a functional jab. And you know, unfortunately, Adamas, at least Adamas goes home with his title, at least he didn't lose. And I don't really see any need for them to fight again, because again, he won two thirds of the rounds, at least I thought. Last one and then we'll let you go. Ajay Cabellel

with some beautiful body work to stop Zhang obviously undefeated only 32 years old where does he go where does he play in this heavyweight division from here? You know it's interesting because Jilay Zhang he trains you know he's from northern New Jersey here where I'm from and I visit him in the gym quite often and see him spar and he had said you know he felt like Kabayel was going to come after his body just because that's what he had done to mock Mudoff and he said bring it on bring it you know, he felt like Caballel was going to come after his body just because that's what he had done to mock Mudoff. And he said, bring it on, bring it, you know, come to my body and watch what happens. And Jullay's a big puncher and has that right hook and everything.

But Caballel, man, that was an impressive performance because it looked in the beginning, I thought, the way that Jullay Zhang started off, and he starts slow sometimes, he started so fast, and he was unloading on Cabael in the first round and then early in the second round. I was like, man, he might take him out early. And then Cabael in some ways, even though it was a much shorter fight, like Bival just completely changed the course of the fight. And then he wasn't landing to the body in the first couple of rounds, but then he was completely committed to the body and Jalejong couldn't handle it, period. I mean, there's no two ways about it.

So Caballel's assent here over the last 13 or 14 months is nothing short of amazing because people have touted his talent for a long time. He just never got the fights that he wanted. And now that he's beaten these types of opponents in three straight fights, I mean, he deserves a title shot. So while it's sexier for Parker to fight Usyk because they're more known fighters, Cabell deserves a title shot. So hopefully he gets it. And I don't mean an interim title. It was an incredible performance. Keith, thank you so much for joining us, man. We really appreciate it. I appreciate it, man. All right, take care. All right. That's it. I appreciate it, man. Thank you. All right, take care. All right, that's it. Card of the century?

No, I don't ultimately feel that, but man, like on a night that boxing had the attention, right now we're transitioning into UFC. I'm gonna say, we gotta go get on UFC Seattle. They're just starting up. Update from Seattle. Oh. Austin Vandervoort.

Oh, second round finish. Let's go, is that three for three? Three finishes so far. Three for three on finishes and then after the fight, his opponent Nikolai Veretnikov shoved Austin Vandervoort in the back. Out of nowhere. And then Vandervoort gave him the double birds. Double birds. Austin Vanans Zandaford. Dub for Eastern. And there's your UFC Seattle update.

Ricky Simone currently in the ring. Oh, oh, oh, currently in the octagon. I thought you were about to say that he upset Javid Bashrod. That would have killed the Barley House. Well, he did just slam Javid to the ground. Whoa! Uh-oh, uh-oh.

We got a lot of action, Seattle. Let the people get their... Yeah, let's grab this boxing. Yes, go watch UFC Seattle. Yes, go watch UFC Seattle. We got to go watch UFC Seattle. Dmitry Bevel, incredible performance, incredible fight. And new. Joseph Parker, give him the Usyk fight.

I'm calling for it. Shakur, give him the tank fight. Run back Adamas Shiraz. And you just heard it, Caballero. Give him a title shot. For me, the story. Cabello Dubois. For me, the story of the night was winners even in defeat, right, or not in victory, right?

Like, Betterbiev, the stock's still good, you know, that he put on the performance that you need to put on. Bacoli, again, I agree with Keith Idick, like, he should not be penalized, he should be given that opportunity. He took a shot, he couldn't make it. Think about those circumstances, man. And, uh, Adames, right?

Walks away with his title, it's a draw, but I think a lot of people thought he won that fight. Lots of guys who showed out, even if they didn't get their hand raised. And then for the winners, like, congratulations, like a big night. So I thought this fight card delivered, big night for boxing. Um, card of the century, that I don't know. But those two could be a pairing of the Century, that I don't know. But those two could be a pairing of the Century

because they're incredible together. Maybe them in like a comane of like a heavyweight clash. Who's sick in someone and you put them in a comane? Put them in the comane of Jake Paul. Now you're really talking. Canelo Jake Paul better be a Bivalry III. Now we're building the real Card of the Century. All right, that'll do it for us for the Uncrowned Post-Fight Show.

Thank you for joining along with us. Four and a half hours in the can. Better be at Bival 2. That's that. Go enjoy UFC Seattle. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We'll see you right here on Monday for the Ariel Helwani Show. Peace, we're out, eh?