Dmitry Bivol put rounds in the bank but didn’t make a good enough impression to earn a shot at a giant payday against boxing’s cash cow, Canelo Alvarez, on Saturday.

Bivol easily outpointed countryman Umar Salamov in a bit of a snoozer to retain his WBA light heavyweight title for the second time at KRK “Uralets” in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

The judges awarded Bivol, The Ring’s No. 2-rated light heavyweight, an unanimous decision by scores of 119-109, 118-109, and 118-110. The Ring scored it a shutout, 120-108, for the titleholder.

“I really hope you liked our fight,” Bivol stated through an interpreter following his sixth consecutive unanimous decision victory.

The 30-year-old Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs), who was elevated to WBA “super” champion in October 2019, has not scored a knockout since March 2018, when he stopped former contender Sullivan Barrera in the 12th and final round at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

For Salamov (26-2, 19 KOs), the Las Vegas-based Russian saw a seven-bout win steak go by the wayside. However, Bivol was unable to hand the unknown his first knockout defeat.

“I was really surprised by [Salamov’s] toughness. I was really surprised by his endurance,” Bivol explained. “I thought at the end of the fight, I would be able [to knock him out], but Umar is a very tough guy and all the props to him.”

Both fighters spent the opening round feeling one another out. Bivol connected with a series of jabs and a solid counter right hand before Salamov also found a home for the right hand early.

Bivol, a Kyrgyzstan-born Russian, dominated Salamov behind his authoritative jab by the third round. Salamov attempted to counter with his right hand, but by the time he threw the shot, Bivol was nowhere to be found.

It was more of the same in round five as Bivol began toying with Salamov. He started mixing in short right hooks on the inside that landed directly on the jaw. The look of discouragement on Salamov’s face grew more prominent as the fight continued.

Salamov turned to aggression in round six, but with the same bag of results. He swung for the fences with a left hook-right hook combination, but Bivol avoided both of the shots and continued to pound Salamov with his jab.

By the end of the sixth, Salamov’s face was marked up under his left eye from the plethora of jabs landed by Bivol. Salamov never stopped trying, but he was outboxed and outsmarted every second of the fight.

Bivol cruised the rest of the way, albeit he did pick up his pace a notch in the championship rounds and mixed in a slew of hooks and combinations in an attempt to knock Salamov out.

But in the end, it was just another night of target practice for Bivol, who did not call out any names but stated his goal was to become “a [unified] champion of the world.”

Bivol is referring to two men: Artur Beterbiev (16-0, 16 KOs), who holds the WBC and IBF straps, and IBF titlist Joe Smith Jr. (27-3, 21 KOs).

Beterbiev is scheduled to face contender Marcus Browne (24-1, 16 KOs) on December 17 at Bell Centre in Montreal. Smith is slated to make his first title defense against Callum Johnson (20-1, 14 KOs) on January 15, 2022, at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York.

Artysh Lopsan (7-1-1, 4 KOs) outpointed Ramil Gadzhyiev (13-2-1, 8 KOs) in a 10-round super middleweight affair in the chief support contest.

On the undercard, 126-pounder Aznaur Kalsynov (2-0-3) broke a string of three consecutive draws with a six-round unanimous decision over Alisher Shodiev (3-2-1, 1 KO). Junior lightweight contender Ruslan Kamilov (12-0-1, 6 KOs) remained undefeated with a brutal sixth-round knockout of Dmitrii Khasiev (12-3-2, 6 KOs). Kamilov floored Khasiev in the waning seconds of the opening round with a well-timed right hand. Then in the sixth, Kamilov finished his opponent off with a perfect left hook to the body that crumbled him. 130-pounder Shavkat Rakhimov (16-0-1, 13 KOs) came away with a second-round TKO after Sardor Muzaffarov (4-5, 2 KOs) refused to come out of his corner for the subsequent round.