Artur Beterbiev reacts to loss against Dmitry Bivol at The Last Crescendo, vows to return stronger: "Good fight with a strong opponent"

Artur Beterbiev reacted to his loss against Dmitry Bivol in their rematch in his recent social media post and vowed to make a strong comeback. In their first encounter last October, Beterbiev secured a majority decision victory and immediately granted Bivol a rematch.

In the second showdown, promoted as ‘The Last Crescendo’, which took place at Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 22, Beterbiev and Bivol once again put on a show for the fans. In a back-and-forth 12-round war, however, this time, the Canadian fell short of getting his hand raised and lost the undisputed light heavyweight world titles via majority decision. This marked his first-ever defeat.

Beterbiev took to Instagram and shared a snap of himself from the bout. He reflected on the loss, praising Bivol as an opponent, and vowed to return stronger in the next, writing:

“It was a good fight with a strong opponent. I thank everyone who supported me all the way. But sport is sport. We will definitely come back even stronger. God’s plans are always better than ours. Alhamdulillah for everything.”

Check out Artur Beterbiev’s Instagram post below:

---

Dmitry Bivol clears up Artur Beterbiev handshake controversy

A video is making waves on the internet in which Artur Beterbiev appeared to refuse to shake hands with Dmitry Bivol in the ring following his title loss.

However, Bivol clarified the situation during the post-fight press conference, explaining that they had a brief conversation and that Beterbiev had shown him respect. The new champion explained:

"After the fight, I went to Beterbiev and I told him, 'Artur, I respect you so much because when I was young and when I came to the national team, I was looking [at] how you were training. You were the number one. I really respect you and I want to shake your hand and say thank you for this fight.' And we shook hands."

He continued:

"He said, 'Thank you for the fight as well. This is the sport, this is what happens. You are a good fighter also.' Then we had another talk, he came, but he said, 'I will not shake [your] hand now, because we will have a third fight.' It was in a normal way, not arrogant."

Check out Dmitry Bivol’s comments below (16:10):