Photos: Sumio Yamada
WBA light heavyweight Dmitry Bivol (17-0, 11 KOs) scored a twelve round unanimous decision over #15 rated Lenin Castillo (20-3-1, 15 KOs) on Saturday night at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago. Bivol outboxed Castillo from the beginning. He dropped Castillo with a right hand in round six, then continue to dominate. Scores were 120-107, 119-108, 119-108. Bivol successfully defended his title for the fifth time.
“Who wants to fight me? Who wants to try to beat me, I’m ready for all comers!” said Bivol after the fight.
On going the twelve round distance for the fourth straight time, Bivol stated, “I won and I kept my belt. It gets me closer to my dream which is to fight for another belt. I want to fight the winner of Gvozdyk-Beterbiev or Canelo-Kovalev. I can fight them now because I won today. Why can’t I get the winner of Gvozdyk-Beterbiev? We are in the same division.”
Stated manager Vadim Kornilov, “This was a very good performance by Dmitry against an awkward opponent who didn’t want to engage. But Dmitry showed all the skills that he has that puts him at the top of the division. Next, we want to fight for the other world titles in the division, whoever comes away with the titles in the other two bouts in November, that’s who we will target. We can’t wait to fight someone who will come and try to actually win and engage. Once the unifications happen, excitement will come because both guys will do everything to win.”
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I wonder how much Castillo weighed when he entered the ring??
Hmmm, Bivol purposely carrying severely overmatched opponents the distance. I’m not sure why he’s playing it safe and not pushing for the knockout when he has it. Maybe he’s trying to bait other fighters who can bring more money to the table, for a big event.
Usyk seems to be doing the same
Whoever didnt like that.. They confirmed after the fight that he was carrying Chazz to get rounds.
Bivol is beautiful to watch in the ring. He’s mobile, fluid in his movements and punches, has excellent boxing skills, is defensively responsible, has a great left jab, and punches sharply and in combination. He had trouble with Castillo’s height and reach, but outboxed him easily to win an easy 12-round decision. He’s rather small for a light heavyweight, so his best weight might be at 168 pounds. However, he’s good enough to beat any light heavyweight, including the top fighters in that division.
I really don’t understand why the fans were booing him after the fight. He displayed a level of artistry that’s just fun to watch and I don’t expect to see knockouts when top fighters face each other. Castillo had never been dropped before but suffered a clean knockdown during the fight. Bivol didn’t push for a knockout because Castillo was strong to the end and Bivol had to be wary of his sharp countershots.
Castillo is no pushover and Bivol won practically every round. It’s time for him to fight one of the other top fighters, which include Kovalev, Beterbiev and Gvozdyk. Gilberto Ramirez is also campaigning at that weight and will be contending for a title soon. There are lots of exciting fights that can be made in the light heavyweight ranks so I look forward to Bivol’s next fight, hopefully against one of the aforementioned fighters.
You are as usual 100% spot on, but I think I can shed some light on why Bivol was booed.
There was a very large contingency of ukrainians in the audience because of Usyk, and their relationship with Russians it’s not very good right now for obvious reasons. So, they saw the Russian flag and saw red.
We don’t get enough boxing information .Thanks
Bivol is boring as hell! not as bad as Bo Bo but still close. His fights are always shit as he never go for the kill. He needs to step up or release his title and drop to Super Middle weight.
Something seemed off about this fight.. I dont know if Castillo was just that good or Bivol was having issues with the stylistic matchup or size difference.. Castillo seemed to durable and I didnt expect him to last.
Bivol hasn’t done a thing since he’s been boxing. Sick of him fighting cans!