By Jim Dower: WBA World light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (12-0, 10 KOs) made a believer out of promoter Eddie Hearn with his lightning fast 1st round knockout victory over #10 WBA Trent Broadhurst (20-2, 12 KOs) last Saturday night.
Bivol knocked Broadhurst out with a straight right to the head at the end of round 1 at the Salle Medcin, in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Bivol threw the shot so perfectly; it looked like he put no real power behind it. It was a straight punch that was placed perfectly by Bivol. He didn’t need to load up on the shot for it to do damage to Broadhurst.
Hearn says he now sees Bivol as potentially the best fighter in the light heavyweight division. Hearn feels that the 26-year-old Bivol is that good of a fighter, and he wants to add him to his team and bring him back to Monaco in early 2018. Bivol says he wants to be the pound-for-pound #1 fighter in boxing. For that to happen, he’s going to need to fight in places like the U.S, and not just in Monaco.
”Absolute beast,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to IFL TV in describing how Bivol looked against Broadhurst. ”He’s a bad man. The right hand was beautiful. It was a beautiful shot. It was just straight through the line, straight down the pike. I think he may beat every light heavyweight in the world right now,” said Hearn.
The boxing world is excited about the Russian Bivol following his blazing fast knockout of Broadhurst last night. Bivol will get a nice test in his next fight against the winner of the Sullivan Barrera vs. Felix Valera fight that takes place later this month on November 25 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Bivol has already beaten Valera by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in 2016. But beating Barrera would be a bigger accomplishment for Bivol, as he’s only lost once in his pro career to Andre Ward in March 2016.
For Bivol to prove that he’s the best, he’ll need to show that he can beat these top names in the 175 lb. division:
• Adonis Stevenson
• Oleksander Gvozdyk
• Artur Beterbiev
• Sullivan Barrera
• Sergey Kovalev
• Badou Jack
Hearn notes that Bivol is still very young to be mixing it up with the top guys in the light heavyweight division. Many of those guys are in well into their 30s, and have more experience than Bivol. It might be a little too early for Bivol to be fighting the likes of Beterbiev, Stevenson, Gvozdyk, Kovalev and Jack. But if Bivol wants to get credit for beating these top fighters in their primes, he’s going to need to face them soon before they age out.
”I think he’d be a good addition to our team,” said Hearn about Bivol. ”I’d love to bring him back to Monaco next year.”
Adding Bivol to his Matchroom Sport team would give Hearn a major player in the light heavyweight division. If Hearn can turn Bivol into a huge star in the U.S like K2 Promotions has done with middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, it would help make the British promoter more of a factor in the promotional picture in U.S boxing.