ANB ARENA, SAUDI ARABIA -- They had to wait four months longer than expected, though Saturday night proved one of sweet vindication for newly-crowned undisputed light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol's team, headed by manager Vadim Kornilov.

The Russian-born American national, who counts former WBA junior-middleweight titleholder Israil Madrimov among his stable of active fighters, experienced mixed emotions during an eventful Last Crescendo card living up to the grandiose billing.

However as the scorecards were read out after another thrilling 12-round contest for the 175-pound titles, judge Jean-Robert Laine's 114-114 draw result caused consternation among the 34-year-old's entourage. Fortunately for them, there would be no controversy as Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) deservedly got his hand raised.

Though it was a topic Kornilov made sure to address during the post-fight press conference, an hour after the new divisional king's career-best victory. Bivol's promoter and Matchroom chief Eddie Hearn declared the first fight "much closer" than this and as another question was being asked, Kornilov circled back.

"Wait one second, we didn't all comment on the Jean-Robert Laine card. First of all, it was Jean-Robert Laine who put 114-114, I mean when is this going to stop? I'm not afraid to say it anymore, when is it going to stop? Why isn't there any sanctioning body supervision that can look into how they saw it 114-114?"

Monégasque official Laine has been a judge since 1993, having started refereeing fights the year prior per BoxRec. Although infrequent, he has overseen world title fights without issue over recent years including a 115-113 scorecard favouring Nick Ball against Raymond Ford and Bivol's wide decision win past Lyndon Arthur in the Saudi capital the previous December.

"I'm not going to talk about the other judges, or the previous ones, but he should be reviewed, look at the fight again and show how he saw ... I looked at the Compubox numbers, 31% Bivol landed to 17% from Beterbiev. What are you watching, what's going on, how does he explain this? I don't want to say the word right now, but how?"

Kornilov's assessment of the CompuBox numbers was correct, though punch stats in isolation alone don't always tell the full story.

Beterbiev landed ten or less punches in seven of their 12 rounds, Bivol only dipped below that figure once - during a lull in the seventh. Boasting a 49-punch connect advantage (170 to 121) speaks for itself over the course of a 36-minute fight, as he landed the most punches of any Beterbiev opponent to date.

Matchroom CEO Frank Smith echoed the same sentiment, before The Ring followed up with Kornilov and queried the extent of Bivol's injuries, having heard him declare himself hampered during his post-fight interview ringside.

After hearing Hearn wax lyrical about the significance of this, his first undisputed male fighter (Katie Taylor did so in 2019), a fresh perspective was welcomed. Compared to the first fight, Kornilov insisted their preparation proved decisive rather than the display.

"It's more important to consider the training camp, when we came together after the last fight, we knew we needed to add something, improve and every team member tried doing something for that - certain things were done - if Dmitry wants to talk about it, he'll discuss it more closely but I knew he would be better, Eddie and I talked about it. If he was 100% last time, 200% now and we did everything we could."

Bivol remained open as far as possibilities are concerned, whether that be a trilogy later this year or satisfying mandatory challenger David Benavidez (30-0, 24 KOs), currently #1 ranked with the WBC and WBA sanctioning bodies at the time of writing.

He said December sounded like a good month to return, walked it back and said perhaps a little sooner, prompting a question about whether he went into the contest with pre-existing injuries or were they just fresh battle wounds that needed healing?

"Nothing special or serious," Bivol told The Ring.

"There is some small inflammation in my elbow, lower back, nothing serious but I need to take care of it, did an operation in July but it [the pain] came back again, it was a small operation and I recovered fast. Maybe I shouldn't have worked so fast but now I need to check, take care of it as I was taking anti-inflammatories throughout the training camp."

Their first meeting was originally set for June 1 and pushed back four months, as Beterbiev withdrew the month before having ruptured his meniscus in training requiring surgery. Bivol ended a nine-fight streak without a stoppage against his plucky replacement that night, dropping and stopping overmatched 22-0 contender Malik Zinad.