Eddie Hearn says that Dmitry Bivol produced one of the best performances he has ever witnessed to beat Artur Beterbiev and become the undisputed light heavyweight champion on Saturday night.

Bivol, 24-1 (12 KOs), avenged the sole loss on his record and inflicted the first career defeat on the ferocious Beterbiev, 21-1 (20 KOs), after an outstanding twelve round battle in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Gaining revenge over Beterbiev saw Bivol accomplish his lifelong dream of becoming the undisputed champion at 175lbs but the manner in which he did it elevated his reputation to even greater heights.

Last October, Beterbiev built momentum throughout a gripping chess match and secured a famous majority decision victory of his own with a late rounds charge.

Before the rematch, many believed that whilst Bivol undoubtedly had the ability to be victorious, he would need to box a technical perfect, controlled fight to keep a fully fit, confident Beterbiev at bay for twelve rounds.

In the end, the 34 year-old prevailed in a more violent, higher paced version of the memorable chess match the two played out first time around.

His performance left his promoter, Hearn, in awe.

“To be honest with you, I can’t believe Dmitry Bivol won that fight after what I saw through five rounds,” Hearn told Ring Magazine after the fight. “I thought he won the first two rounds and we knew Beterbiev would start fast but he just came out like an absolute train and it looked like nothing would stop him or nothing was going to reduce the pressure and what we saw from there was probably the best boxing performance I’ve ever seen live.”

With the series now tied at one win each, talk instantly and inevitably turned to the possibility of Bivol and Beterbiev settling their outstanding rivalry with a third and final meeting but although Beterbiev undoubtedly deserves the opportunity to regain his titles, a rubber match is just one of a number of lucrative, high-profile options for Bivol.

Mexican superstar and multi-weight world champion, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, recently signed a four fight deal to fight on Riyadh Season shows and Bivol would have no qualms about stepping back into the ring with the man he comfortably outpointed in a WBA 175lb title defence back in 2022.

Unbeaten WBC interim light heavyweight champion, David Benavidez, 30-0 (24 KOs), also made a late trip out to Riyadh to ‘scope out’ the competition.

Hearn revealed that he is open to any suggestions that Turki Alalshikh, head of Riyadh Season and chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, may make.

“Yeah, whatever his Excellency wants,” Hearn said.

“Benevidez, the Canelo rematch, the trilogy. I mean, the first fight was a ten out of ten. That was a twelve out of ten and the next one will be even better.”