_1651990243.jpg)
Dmitry Bivol will have to wait another year to swap punches with Canelo Alvarez.
The Russian light heavyweight titleholder will likely defend his WBA bauble in the fall after the recent news that Alvarez decided to pivot toward a trilogy bout with Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17 on DAZN pay-per-view.
Bivol defeated Alvarez by unanimous decision in their 12-round light heavyweight title bout earlier this month at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Alvarez, the undisputed champion at 168, had a rematch clause, but in the end, he decided to forsake it in favor of a third fight with Golovkin.
Eddie Hearn, the co-promoter of Bivol, said he has a plan in place for Bivol that consists of Bivol taking a voluntary defense in the fall, then a rematch with Alvarez the following year, likely in the spring.
“We sat down with Dmitry Bivol and his team and said, ‘Look, you’re going to defend your world championship around the same time, in September, and then you’re gonna rematch Canelo Alvarez in May,’” Hearn said on a recent episode of The DAZN Boxing Show.
Asked if Hearn would be interested in trying to make a full light heavyweight unification bout between Bivol (WBA) and the upcoming 175-pound title bout between champions Artur Beterbiev (IBF, WBC) and Joe Smith Jr. (WBO) on June 18 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the veteran promoter said it was an option. In reality, given that both Beterbiev and Smith are aligned with rival promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank Inc., an undisputed fight would be far from a guarantee and would require the participation of Top Rank.
“Possibly,” Hearn said of an undisputed match-up. “He’s (Bivol) gonna be fighting around that same time, September, October. We know that Beterbiev and Joe Smith are fighting in June. So Dmitry Bivol can even look at the undisputed fight later in the year with us.”
As it relates to Bivol’s voluntary defense in the fall, Hearn is particularly keen on matching the Russian against one of Hearn’s young contenders, either Joshua Buatsi or former 168-pound titlist Callum Smith.
Buatsi is coming off a close points win over British countryman Craig Richard this past Saturday at the O2 Arena in London.
“Obviously, Joshua Buatsi won over the weekend,” Hearn said. “That’s a fight we’d be interested to make as well. You’ve got Callum Smith there, another one of our fighters that we represent. We’ve got plenty of options for [Bivol] in terms of voluntary defenses.”
As Hearn understands it, Bivol desires an Alvarez rematch since it represents what would be a career payday.
“He wants to become undisputed, but at the same time he wants the rematch because that rematch is going to make him a helluva lot of money,” Hearn said. Again, that’s one of the biggest fights in boxing. We’ll sit down with [Bivol co-promoter] World of Boxing and [manager] Vadim [Kornilov] and plan out the future for Dmitry Bivol, but he’s in a great position.”
