Artur Beterbiev congratulated by Vladimir Putin’s ‘attack dog’ after controversial victory

Vladimir Putin’s warlord ally was pictured celebrating Artur Beterbiev’s controversial light heavyweight undisputed title win in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.

Beterbiev triumphed over Dmitry Bivol after a majority decision that Eddie Hearn branded “sickening”. Photos appeared to show Hearn’s designated seat for the Saudi-backed fight positioned directly in front of Ramzan Kadyrov, who is sanctioned by the British government and has sent thousands of his soldiers to war in Ukraine.

In a video montage posted on his Telegram channel, Kadyrov is seen jumping up to the ring and then hugging Chechen boxer Beterbiev at the end of the fight. Later, after the boxer was crowned champion, he lifted Beterbiev on to his shoulders.

“Artur did it, friends!” he said. “With this historic triumph, he gave a gift to the entire Chechen people.”

Hearn, who helped organise the fight in Riyadh, has not commented on Kadyrov’s presence. He was promoting rival boxer Bivol, also a Russian, and described the judges’ scored win for Beterbiev as “absolutely disgusting”.

Hearn added: “In one of the biggest fights of our generation and in the most important fight in Dmitry Bivol’s life, you give him four rounds?

“You heard [Beterbiev’s corner] in the 10th round, ‘You have to knock him out to win this fight’. They knew Artur Beterbiev lost this fight. I’m absolutely baffled and disgusted by a scorecard of 116-112.

“I don’t want to disrespect Artur Beterbiev but Dmitry Bivol should be the undisputed champion tonight and that judge should never work again. Four rounds in a fight of that magnitude is disgusting.”

Kadyrov, accused by human rights organisations of ordering the torture and murder of his enemies, disagreed.

“For me, personally, everything was clear after the first two rounds. It was in this segment that Artur showed who was the boss in the ring,” he said.

Kadyrov was initially sanctioned by the British government in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, precursor to the current conflict in Ukraine. Putin props up Kadyrov in Chechnya, banking on his hardman rule crushing dissent in the region in southern Russia.

Telegraph Sport approached Hearn for comment.