WBA light heavyweight world champion Dmitry Bivol is planning to have his next fight in the month of October, according to the athlete’s manager Vadim Kornilov.
“The plans for October, the opponent has not been determined,” said Kornilov to Tass.
Bivol, 33-years-old, has an undefeated record with 21 wins and 11 of them by knockout.
2022 was certainly the biggest year in Bivol’s career.
In May, he pulled off a shocker by outboxing heavily favored Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez over twelve rounds for a unanimous decision win. The outcome marked Canelo’s first defeat since suffering a decision loss to Floyd Mayweather in 2013.
Then in November, Bivol dominated undefeated mandatory challenger Gilberto Ramirez over twelve rounds for a wide decision win in Abu Dhabi.
For much of 2023, there was talk of a September rematch with Canelo. The two sides were unable to reach an agreement on the financial terms. And then eventually, Canelo would announce a multi-fight deal with Premier Boxing Champions – and will now face undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo on September 30 in Las Vegas.
Another potential option is WBC, IBF, WBO champion Artur Beterbiev. However, there are serious issues in making that fight a reality – at least for the undisputed championship. Mauricio Sulaiman, president of the World Boxing Council, has openly expressed his refusal in sanctioning such a bout, because WBC view Bivol as a Russian fighter. The sanctioning body has refused to approve any fights involving boxers from Russia or Belarus – until the war between Russia and Ukraine has concluded.
Beterbiev is also Russian, but he’s lived in Canada for several years and has citizenship in the country. The ultimate goal of being undisputed may get easier for Bivol – if Beterbiev were to lose his upcoming mandatory defense to Callum Smith. Both Bivol and Smith have a working relationship with Eddie Hearn of Matchroom.