Dmitry Bivol vs. Samuel Clarkson – Results

Boxingnews24.com

By Jim Dower: Undefeated #1 WBA Dmitry Bivol (10-0, 8 KOs) destroyed second tier fighter Samuel Clarkson (19-4, 12 KOs) in a 4th round knockout win to capture the interim WBA World light heavyweight title on Friday night at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The 26-year-old Bivol knocked Clarkson down 3 times in the fight. The end of the fight came from a big right from Bivol that flattened the 26-year-old Clarkson.

(Photo Credit: Amanda Westcott/SHOWTIME)

Clarkson did get back to his feet, but the referee Harvey Dock stopped the fight due to Clarkson being badly hurt. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:40 of round 4. Boxing News 24 had Bivol easily winning every round until he finished Clarkson off in round 4. Clarkson ran into a right hand from Bivol in the 4th, causing him to go down. Clarkson was too badly hurt after the knockdown to continue fighting.

Bivol knocked Clarkson down twice in round 1. The first knockdown came from a left hook to the head. The second knockdown was from a jab to the midsection of Clarkson followed by a right hand to the head. Clarkson made it out of the 1st round despite not holding Bivol or using movement to get away from him. Clarkson didn’t throw much of anything in the 1st. Clarkson fought like it was the first time that he’d ever been hurt before in the fight. He was doing everything wrong in terms of not holding, moving and staying off the ropes. Bivol took complete advantage of all of Clarkson’s many mistakes to hurt him with his combinations to the head and body.

Clarkson took a lot of needless shots in the first 2 rounds. He wasn’t doing anything to try and keep Bivol honest. It wasn’t until round 3 that Clarkson finally started to go on the attack, and he landed some good shots during the round. Bivol looked like he gassed out a little bit in the 3rd round from all the punches he’d thrown while trying to knock Clarkson out.

The boxing fans at ringside enjoyed the action, but I think probably would have liked the fight a lot more if Clarkson had thrown more punches.
Bivol showed good punching power with both hands. His body punching was excellent with his straight shots down the middle. Even Bivol’s jabs to the body looked powerful. Clarkson was hurt by a straight jab from Bivol in the 1st round. The shot was down the middle, and Clarkson reacted by backing up to the ropes immediately. Bivol then hit him with a left to the head that put him down on one knee on the canvas.

After Clarkson got back to his feet, Bivol teed off on him with punch after punch to the head. Clarkson went down for a second time from a jab to the body followed by an overhand right head shots. To his credit, Clarkson got back to his feet and was able to make it out of the round despite eating a massive amount of shots. It was painful to watch. Clarkson wasn’t using his boxing skills. He was just standing in front of Bivol taking shots.

I’m not sure how hurt Clarkson was. I know he was hurt, but he still appeared to have his senses about him. He was just nothing fighting smart by holding Bivol or moving around the ring. It probably wouldn’t have mattered if Clarkson had moved a lot, because Bivol seemed to do a good job of cutting off the ring quickly in the first times that Clarkson did try and move away from him. It didn’t work.

The only negative that I can say about Bivol’s performance tonight was his lack of variety with his punches. Bivol was throwing repeated left-right combinations to the head of Clarkson. Bivolv could have changed the angle of his shots so that they were less predictable. It didn’t matter tonight because Clarkson was so over-matched. He was blocking much of anything that Bivol threw at him. For that reason, it probably didn’t matter that Bivol never changed the angle of his shots. Bivol’s defense didn’t look that good, especially in round 3 when he was getting hit back. If Clarkson was a puncher, he would have had a chance of beating Bivol. You can’t really say for sure that Clarkson would have won if he had fought a smarter fight and if he had some punching power.

With the win, Bivol will now be challenging WBA World light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly next. That should be a good fight. Cleverly is an upgrade from Clarkson and the other guys that Bivol has been facing since he turned pro in 2013. Nathan Cleverly will have problems with Bivol’s punching power and his high punch volume. Nathan struggled in his last fight in beating Juergen Braehmer by a 6th round injury stoppage.

Bivol hits even harder than Braehmer. Nathan would need to come up with a different game plan if he were to want to beat Bivol because if he stands in front of him, he’s going to get stopped the same way he did against Sergey Kovalev. It’ll still be a good test for Bivolv to see how good he is.

Bivol had a long amateur career in Russia. He was born in Kyrgyzstan. He lives in Saint Petersburg, Russia. According to Showtime, Bivol is half Korean and half Moldovan.

With the addition of Bivol in the highest levels of the 175lb division, he’s yet another hard hitting Eastern European fighter joining the upper ranks. Right now, the light heavyweight division has Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Artur Beterbiev and Sergey Kovalev all from Eastern Europe.

I don’t think Bivol is quite as powerful as those guys, but you never know. He’s a very good fighter that just needs a few tweaks in his game. Bivol vs. Kovalev would be a good fight. Even Andre Ward would be a good option for Bivol. I’m not sure that Ward would be ever agree to take the fight with Bivol because he’s not a big name.