Another night, another title defense from Dmitry Bivol in the hopes of a more entertaining affair to come the next time around.

The unbeaten light heavyweight titlsit turned away the challenge of Dominican Republic's Lenin Castillo, scoring a landslide win Saturday evening at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.

Scores were 119-109 twice and 120-108 in favor of Bivol, who scored a mid-fight knockdown but otherwise remained content with the pace of the distance fight.

"If I lose today, it would be bad," Bivol told DAZN's Chris Mannix after the fight. "I win, though, and I keep my belt."

Bivol entered the sixth defense of his light heavyweight title as a heavy betting favorite, the disparity in talent level apparent from the moment they first met at center ring. Castillo stood his ground for the most part, at times coming forward in efforts to take the lead.Bivol wasn't having any of it, committing to a heavy jab which at times was enough on its own to win rounds.

Castillo's naturally larger frame proved a difficult target to push around, though it never deterred Bivol from letting his hands go. Compubox numbers had the unbeaten Kyrgyzstan holding Castillo to landing in single digits in every round through the first seven. Meanwhile, Bivol was often landing more than three times as many punches, most of which were his jab while also mixing in an occasional body attack.

A power surge came in round six when Bivol sent Castillo to the canvas for the bout's lone knockdown courtesy of a clean right hand. It was an isolated moment, however, as it barely produced even the threat of a knockout. Castillo dusted himself off and continued to come forward, though with minimal success.

The first-time title challenger enjoyed his best sequence in round nine, letting his hands go and getting through with a few right hand shots. While the official punchstat numbers were one sided overall, it was very much even play in terms of power punches, although Bivol was the more efficient of the two.  Still, credit to Castillo for attempting to turn a glorified sparring session into a competitive or at least entertaining fight.

Bivol put an end to that in the championship rounds, shutting down Castillo's attack through his jab and occasional right hand while steadily bouncing on his toes. Castillo stood tall, hands held high and all but conceding defeat in a fight that begged for a dramatic shift in tide as he falls to 20-3-1 (15KOs).

Bivol moves to 17-0 (KOs) with the win, though just his second of 2019 as securing fights—regardless of opposition level—remains his toughest test thus far. Saturday's bout was his first since a 12-round win over former Top 10 contender Joe Smith Jr, this past March in upstate New York. 

Perhaps the timing of Saturday's bout will bode well for Bivol's prospects of landing more significant fights in 2020. His latest win comes six days before the title unification clash between unbeaten light heavyweights Oleksandr Gvozdyk (who is also the lineal light heavyweight champion) and Artur Beterbiev. Two weeks after that comes Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez's pursuit of boxing history, looking to become the first-ever Mexican boxer to claim title wins at 154, 160 and 175 as he faces defending titlist Sergey Kovalev.

That puts all four major titlists in action within a three week span, meaning there isn't any excuse to mix and match the winners—or even the high profile losers—in some capacity for their first respective fights of the new year.

"Why not," Bivol said of facing another titlist in 2020. "We are all in the same division."

Saturday's bout aired live on DAZN in chief support to Oleksandr Usyk's heavyweight debut as he faces late replacement Chazz Witherspoon.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox