Eddie Hearn wants to set up a huge card on June 3rd, with light heavyweight champions Artur Beterbiev battling Callum Smith and Dmitry Bivol facing the unbeaten Joshua Buatsi in Abu Dhabi.
If Hearn can pull this off with Beterbiev & Bivol sharing the same card in a doubleheader on June 3rd, it would be massive and the perfect way to build a mega-fight between them for later this year or in the first quarter of 2024.
June 3rd might be cutting it a little too close for Beterbiev because he has Ramadan until April 21, and it’s questionable whether he’ll be ready to face the big-punching Callum by that date. If so, it will make for an exciting match to package with the potential Bivol-Buatsi fight.
Callum (29-1, 21 KOs), the WBC mandatory for Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs), has to get through his March 11th fight against Pawel Stepien (18-0-1, 12 KOs) at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England. Provided Callum wins that fight, he’ll challenge Beterbiev next.
WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) needs an opponent to keep busy while he waits for his rematch with Canelo Alvarez, and Hearn would like to use his Matchroom fighter Buatsi (16-0, 12 KOs) as his opponent.
Bivol-Buatsi is a fight that Hearn has talked about wanting to set up for months, and while the fans haven’t paid much attention, it’s one that he’s not given up on.
The 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Buatsi might be as good as it gets for Bivol to prepare him for his rematch with Canelo.
“We want to bring a massive fight to Abu Dhabi. With Dmitry Bivol, when you talk about him right now, June the 3rd is a little bit early for Beterbiev because it’s off the back of Ramadan,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social.
“The Canelo Alvarez fight is there for Bivol in September, but Bivol also needs to fight because he’s not waiting until September to fight, so you bring in the Buatsi fight, for example.
“So does Beterbiev fight Callum Smith, and we do a doubleheader? Beterbiev-Smith & Bivol-Buatsi. It’s a great card for the UK. Absolutely,” said Hearn when asked if it’s realistic to have these two fantastic fights on the same card on June 3rd. “We’ll see what happens, but it’s exciting.”
Beterbiev is promoted by Top Rank, and they would need to give their blessings for him to fight in June against Callum in Hearn’s proposed card in Abu Dhabi.