Eddie Hearn says he has “four or five” options for WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol for his next defense on January 13th in Las Vegas.
Eddie will get the best possible opponent he can for Bivol, but even if does find a suitable option, we’re probably talking about a guy who has virtually no chance against him, someone like Joshua Buatsi or Dan Azeez. The 175-lb division is barren of talent once you get past Bivol & Artur Beterbiev.
Bivol has been sidetracked with a hand injury since his victory over Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez last year in November. He had hoped to make a quick return this year, but he’s been sitting on the shelf, waiting to heal up.
A rematch against Canelo Alvarez was a fight that Bivol had hoped to get, but the Mexican star changed his mind about wanting to try and avenge his loss from a year ago.
Hearn wants Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) to get this fight out of the way and then set up the undisputed 175-lb championship for Dmitry from the winner of the January 13th fight between IBF/WBC/WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev & Callum Smith.
That’s a fight that Hearn believes the former WBA super middleweight champion Smith (29-1, 21 KOs) can win. Of course, Hearn promotes Smith, so it’s understandable why he thinks he can defeat Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs).
“He looks to return in January, possibly January 13th in Las Vegas, and then we want to make the [Artur] Beterbiev fight. There’s been a few approaches about that fight,” said Eddie Hearn to Proboxing fans on when WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol could be returning to the ring.
Good options for Bivol:
- Joshua Buatsi
- Anthony Yarde
- Dan Azeez
- Oleksandr Gvozdyk
- Jaime Munguia – 168
- Caleb Plant – 168
- Edgar Berlanga – 168
The WBC will need to agree to sanction the Beterbiev vs. Bivol fight for it to be for the undisputed light heavyweight championship because of the Russian war in Ukraine. It’s possible they could sanction the fight if Bivol’s promoter, Hearn, asked for an exemption.
“Obviously, he [Beterbiev] fights Callum Smith [on January 13th], and I truly believe Callum Smith wins that fight by knockout,” Hearn continued. “So, if we can do Callum Smith against Bivol for the undisputed, even better. So, we’ll have to see.”
It’s considered a longshot for Callum to defeat Beterbiev, considering he’s never beaten anyone near the class of Artur, and he looked something awful in his loss to Canelo Alvarez and his controversial win over John Ryder. Those are the only notable names on Callum Smith’s resume, and he looked like an utter failure in both contests.
“Yeah, [Bivol] headlining in America on January 13th. Not yet. We’ve got four or five guys in the mix, and we’ll make an announcement soon,” said Hearn on the next fight for Bivol.
