WBA light welterweight champion Dmitry Bivol says his management is looking at a couple of names for his next fight, which he hopes will be in December, to get him ready to take on the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Callum Smith fight in January.
Bivol has been out of action for almost an entire year due to a hand problem, and he wants to get back in action and face whoever emerges the winner of the Beterbiev-Smith fight on the January 13th match in Quebec City.
This weekend, Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) will attend the Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Bivol is one of many top boxers who will be attending the event, and it’ll give him a chance to be seen at this high-visibility event.
Bivol last fought in November, beating Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez by a twelve round unanimous decision on DAZN in Abu Dhabi. He had hoped to face Canelo Alvarez in a rematch, but the Mexican star has chosen to go in a different direction and appears no longer interested in avenging his loss from a year ago.
Bivol has taken it in stride, viewing it as more of Canelo’s problem, not his, given that he easily won their fight.
“Of course, I would want to fight before Callum Smith & Beterbiev, and then I hope God will give me the chance to fight against the winner,” said Dmitry Bivol to Boxing King Media.
“I believe in my skills, and I hope I will win, and then I will fight against the winner of Beterbiev vs. Smith.
“I feel good that I’m art this big fight in Riyadh. For me, it’s a new place. This is the first time I’ve been in Riyadh,” said Bivol about him flying over to Saudi Arabia for Saturday’s ‘Battle of the Baddest’ contest between Tyson Fury & Francis Ngannou.
“It’s [Fury-Ngannou] is good until we have real boxing matches. If we see Crawford against Spence, if we see Lomachenko-Haney, and we see a lot of good fights, and then we see Fury-Ngannou. It’s good, but if we only see blogger fights, it’s not good for the sport, but this is good.
“We could think ‘What if,’ but now I’m on the ground. I’m staying here, and I’m only thinking about sports achievement,” said Bivol when asked if he would agree to fight an MMA fighter in a crossover bout if he was given $50 million.
“Money achievement will come with the sports achievement. Now, I’m focused on my career.
“I think so. It’s one of the hardest opponents for Fury because Usyk is smart, fast, and has a good conditioning. It’s a good fight for both of them,” said Bivol about Fury potentially fighting IBF, WBA & WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk in December.
