Even Canelo got away from Bivol. A modest Russian frightened all applicants.
Igor Nekrasov July 12, 2023, 16:00 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
And a solid promoter can’t help either.
Famed promoter Eddie Hearn said his client, WBA light heavyweight boxing champion Dmitry Bivol of Russia, plans to enter the ring in October. At the moment, negotiations with potential rivals are underway.
The last time the Russian champion defended his title was in November 2022, then he easily defeated the Mexican Gilberto Ramírez. After this fight, he constantly talked about two fights with the prefix “super” with the participation of Dmitry Bivol.
The first is a rematch with the Mexican Saúl Álvarez. Canelo, who lost to Bivol in the first fight, could not calm his wounded ego and constantly challenged Dimitri to duels. But the matter never reached concrete negotiations. Firstly, the boxers had completely different views on the terms of the rematch: Saul wanted to box again for Dmitry’s light heavyweight title, and Bivol wanted to drop down to second middleweight and challenge for the Mexican’s belts. And secondly, the president of the WBC, Mauricio Suleiman, said that his organization does not sanction the fight of any Russian boxer, so the option with Canelo has disappeared. The Mexican made no further attempts to arrange a light heavyweight fight with Bivol, but he did decide to fight another undisputed world champion, Jermell Charlo. Canelo got away from Dmitry and “stole” Tim Tszyu’s opponent.
Let’s remember what happened:
Fat check or legacy? Canelo offered a lot of money to leave Bivol
The second super fight with the participation of Bivol – against the world champion in three versions in the light heavyweight division of Russian Artur Beterbiev – also did not take place. Politics intervened again in the form of Mauricio Suleiman, who refused to sanction the fight, hinting that Bivol needed to follow Arthur’s lead: compete under a different banner.
“Your situation needs to sit down, study and see. What is true and what is said. And your team can chat. They clearly and clearly told me that they would not let me box if I only had a Russian passport. Put before the fact. I don’t know if he is allowed to box or not. I was clearly and clearly informed that with a Russian passport I would not be able to enter the ring. So they asked me the question, I don’t know why. I had to do it then. We are lucky that the time has come to obtain citizenship,” Beterbiev himself commented on the situation.
Great interview with Arthur:
If you want to fight, prove that you are not Russian. Bivol deprived of the fight of the century for the passport
As a result, Beterbiev was designated for a mandatory defense against Britain’s Callum Smith, which will take place on August 19. And Bivol is still without an opponent, and even if Dmitry fights in October, his downtime will be almost a year. The representative of the Russian Eddie Hearn explained that Dmitry did not enter the ring for a long time also due to injury.
“He will return to the ring in October. Why do you think he didn’t fight? Because he was hurt. He will be ready to come back in October,” Eddie Hearn said.
If you look at the WBA light heavyweight rankings, Bivol is followed by three Britons: Joshua Buatsi, Dan Aziz and Anthony Yard, as well as American Joe Smith. With Smith, Bivol had already boxed and beaten him, Buatsi and Aziz were offered to fight Dmitry, but both Brits refused. According to Eddie Hearn, Buatsi turned down this fight in March, although the Brit was offered a fee of more than £1 million. Aziz was invited to fight Bivol recently but was also turned down.
Therefore, Dmitry’s team goes further down the list. Next in line is WBA No. 3 ranked Anthony Yard, who is scheduled to make an offer in the near future. Yard has already fought two Russians for light heavyweight titles, but lost both times. In 2019, in Chelyabinsk, Anthony lost by knockout to Sergey Kovalev for the WBO title, spending his last fight in January 2023, where he forced a competitive fight on Artur Beterbiev, but also lost. Bivol himself says that Yard is getting better and better, so perhaps this fight is currently one of the most interesting and intriguing for Dmitry.
