Dmitry Bivol Wants The Undisputed Fight
Dmitry Bivol, the WBA light heavyweight champion, wants to make the undisputed fight moving forward in the future.
The Russian will have his first fight since his win over Zurdo Ramirez last year on December 23rd, 2023, in Saudi Arabia. Bivol will face off against Lyndon Arthur. A win will take the WBA champion a step closer to being undisputed. The fighter had been away from the ring due to a combination of a hand injury and the failure to find an opponent following the collapse of the Canelo Alvarez rematch. But provided that Bivol gets past Arthur, the light heavyweight will be in line to face the winner of Artur Beterbiev vs. Callum Smith. Those two will battle it out on January 13th, 2024, which is where Bivol’s focus will be.
Bivol On Undisputed
“Of course, it’s not the next fight. I wanted it before. It’s not right to talk about Beterbiev or Smith because right now, I have an opponent. It’s disrespect to Lyndon and disrespect to myself to look behind his back. When you’re going in the ring, you have to focus on your opponent only. Just you and your opponent.
“I see Beterbiev as a good favorite in this fight, but, of course, it’s not an easy fight. Smith is a good fighter. Yeah, I think he wants it because he talked about it many times,” said Bivol when asked if he believed Beterbiev wanted to face him. “He wants it, of course, because he’s in boxing to achieve something big. He’s a good fighter, a good athlete. Of course, he wants,” Bivol
The attempts at making the undisputed fight have been complicated by the WBC’s ruling on Russian fighters. The organization had banned Russian fighters from fighting for their belt as a result of the war in Ukraine. That did not go down well with Bivol, who was unhappy with politics and boxing mixing.
Saudis Want The Undisputed Fight
Although that may have been the case, the WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman did indicate that Bivol had the right to appeal. Regardless of what the case may be, the introduction of Saudi Arabia into boxing may have changed all that. Reports indicate that the Kingdom is intent on putting on the undisputed fight, given their recent success of managing to secure an agreement between Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk. That will naturally give boxing fans another mega fight at a time when the sport has been accused of not putting on the biggest fights.
“His Excellency Turki Alalshikh has named Dmitry Bivol vs Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight world titles as one of the fights he wants to see as part of Riyadh Season in Saudi Arabia,” Michael Benson said
Ultimately, Bivol and Beterbiev must come through their respective fights before they can consider facing each other. But if they do end up doing so, then the next fight could see them face off against each other.
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