Two men reign supreme in the light heavyweight division, Artur Beterbiev, who holds the WBC, WBO, and IBF world titles, and Dmitry Bivol, the WBA light heavyweight world champion, who was the most fight fans boxer of the year in 2022. The two facing each other isn’t just a dream fight - it is also a classic style match-up, Bivol is a fantastic boxer, and Beterbiev is a good boxer, but also incredibly strong as he has knocked out each and every one of his opponents.
Bivol’s manager Vadim Kornilov recently caught up with Id Boxing and gave an update on the career of Dmitry Bivol, as well as commented on this mega fight we all want to see.
“We are meeting here daily [and trying to figure out when Dmitry Bivol will return to the ring],” said Vadim Kornilov, Bivol’s manager to Id Boxing. “Obviously, [Jaime] Munguia is still in the talks and hopefully that can work out and maybe we can make that happen in June. For us, it is more of an in-between, many people are asking why is Munguia, why is it [not another big famous fighter]. If you guys tell me what opponent you guys see that Dmitry [Bivol] should fight - Dmitry has never backed down from any fight, but right now on this side of the street it seems like [Munguia] is the only fight that makes sense.”
As for the Beterbiev fight, it appears that Callum Smith getting the next crack at Beterbiev might have pushed the fight off by one more year, sadly. Originally the two sides were talking about facing each other in the summer of this year, but with Beterbiev set to face Callum Smith, but void of a fight date - it seems the fight will happen at the earliest in 2024.
One of the biggest hurdles is the fact that both fighters occupy the pound-for-pound list for any credible boxing list rankings, and because of that they both want to get paid. That seems to mean that for the fight to happen, and for the money to be right it more than likely would take place in the United Arab Emirates.
“It is two top guys fighting each and has to be really backed up by not only the finances, but backed by the fans the attention, and I think [it is just now getting to that point],” stated Kornilov. “Right now it seems the UAE or [Saudi Arabia] have been coming together to put big fights together, but I think those are the options.”
