For the second consecutive fight, Dmitry Bivol walked out of Atlantic City as the WBA light heavyweight champion with a wide unanimous decision victory.
Only this time, Bivol got his latest title defense as the headliner for an HBO-televised card. In the final edition of "HBO World Championship Boxing," Bivol defeated former world champion Jean Pascal by unanimous decision (117-111, 119-109, 119-109) to retain his WBA title.
Bivol dominated the fight, landing several combinations to Pascal's head. Bivol had no trouble using his speed advantage to take control of the action while also avoiding Pascal's punches. Pascal only landed a handful of punches in the opening rounds and never really pressured Bivol or gave him any trouble. There was a couple of instances in the second half of the fight that saw Pascal throw aggressive punches and wild haymakers, but most of those shots were swung and missed. Bivol would maintain his rapid pace to outbox Pascal until the very end of the fight.
While Bivol had little trouble throwing and landing punches, Pascal struggled mightily to land anything. Pascal only landed a total of 60 punches in the fight, averaging five punches connected per round. In the power punching department, Bivol outlanded Pascal 127-54 with the WBA champion connecting 44 percent of the time.
This was Bivol's second straight win in Atlantic City. In his last fight, Bivol retained his title against Isaac Chilemba with a unanimous decision victory. After the fight against Pascal, Bivol stated his intent to fight either WBO light heavyweight champion Eleider Alvarez or former world champion Badou Jack as fights Bivol consider to be a challenge.
In the co-main event fight, Murodjon Ahkmadaliev defeated Isaac Zarate with a ninth-round TKO to retain his WBA Intercontinental super bantamweight title. Ahkmadaliev, a bronze medalist from the 2016 Olympics, improved his pro record to 5-0.
HBO's final boxing card is scheduled to take place on December 8 with Cecilia Braekhus defending her undisputed women's welterweight title against Aleksandra Magdziak Lopes in the main event.