Boxing fans can apparently forget about seeing an undisputed light heavyweight title fight between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev anytime soon—or so long as Russia’s onslaught against Ukraine persists.
Bob Arum, the founder of Top Rank Inc., which promotes IBF, WBO, WBC 175-pound champion Beterbiev, said in a recent interview that he would not attempt to make a fight involving his charge and WBA titlist Dmitry Bivol. Arum cited the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as his primary reason.
Arum’s rationale dovetails with that of WBC head Mauricio Sulaiman, who told an outlet in April that his sanctioning body would bar Russian or Belarusian fighters from fighting for any of their belts. In the case of the light heavyweights, Sulaiman more recently specified that the WBC would not participate in any fight involving Bivol, a Kyrgyzstan-born Russian national who lives in California, meaning even if the two were to fight each other, it could not be for the undisputed distinction. Sulaiman’s edict in this case, however, does not apply to Beterbiev, despite the fact he is also Russian. According to Sulaiman, Beterbiev is exempt from his company’s decree because Beterbiev has Canadian citizenship.“[Beterbiev] has been in Canada for 15 years,” Sulaiman told Reuters last April. “He lives in Canada, his children were born in Canada, he has a Canadian passport and Canadian residency and a boxing license from Canada.”
“Yes, the WBC has made its views known,” Arum said on the 3 Knockdown Rule. “I am very sympathetic to the WBC’s views. I 100% support Ukraine and its fight against aggression. So I am not going to push a Bivol-Beterbiev fight.
“And then you might say, isn’t Beterbiev Russian? And the answer is no, not really, because he has had a residential visa in Canada for 14 years, so I look at him as being Canadian. And he’s [from] Chechnya, and the reason Chechnya is still part of Russia is because Putin bombed the crap out of them and had them succumb to his overwhelming military force. So again, I don’t want to do anything that supports Russia in any way. So I applaud Mauricio for the position that he’s taken.”
This is not the first time that Arum has declared his opposition to making a unification fight involving the two Russians. Last year, after Beterbiev knocked out Joe Smith Jr. to unify three 175-pound belts, Arum told BoxingScene.com that he would not consider making a Beterbiev-Bivol fight for corporate reasons. Bivol is backed by Eddie Hearn, whose Matchroom Boxing has a content output deal with DAZN, the streaming platform. Arum’s Top Rank has its own broadcasting deal with ESPN. Arum excoriated DAZN for its supposedly low viewership, saying the only way he would make that fight is if his company gets to promote it on ESPN.
Arum made it clear that he has nothing personal against Bivol, who is in talks to possibly fight Canelo Alvarez in a rematch later this year.
“Yeah, I love the fight,” Arum said. “I just, I’m not gonna do it against a principle that a lot of us hold dear. I mean there’s nothing wrong with Bivol. He seems like a nice fellow. And Vadim Kornilov, who is his manager, is a terrific guy. But it is what it is.”
Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.