By Brian Webber: Dmitry Bivol and his promoter Andrey Ryabinskiy are looking for his next opponent after Canelo Alvarez decided not to take the immediate rematch, preferring instead to face Gennadiy Golovkin next.
Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) had initially talked of wanting an immediate rematch with Bivol after losing a 12-round decision against him on May 7th. Still, he’s changed his mind and will be facing Golovkin on September 17th in a lucrative trilogy match on DAZN PPV.
The Mexican star Canelo still plans on fighting Bivol again, but he wants to battle Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) in September first at 168. That’s a fight that Canelo-Golovkin had already planned before the Bivol battle on May 7th.
The trilogy match with Golovkin made more sense for Canelo than to face Bivol in a risky immediate rematch. Golovkin will be turning 41 in April, and Canelo must face him now. The boxing world has been waiting for Canelo to fight Golovkin in their trilogy since 2018, and as promoter Eddie Hearn says, “It’s now or never.”
“Dmitry has already begun his preparations for the next fight,” said promoter Andrey Ryabinskiy to Sky Sports. “But it is impossible to say who will be the next person to fight. We have just begun to think about it.”
Canelo wasn’t supposed to lose to Bivol, as he was a 4:1 favorite and believed to have too much talent for the unbeaten WBA 175-lb champion.
With the rematch against Canelo off the table, Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) has several appealing options to defend his WBA light heavyweight title.
Bivol’s options:
1. Artur Beterbiev vs. Joe Smith Jr. winner
2. Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez
3. Joshua Buatsi
The first option, to fight the Beterbiev-Smith Jr winner, would be the ideal one for Bivol, as he would have the opportunity to fight for the undisputed 175-lb championship.
“I believe in Dmitry. Today he is one of the best fighters in the world because of the combination of his physical conditions, his abilities to concentrate on the result, and his technique,” said Ryabinskiy.
Promoter Bob Arum will need to be persuaded to let the Beterbiev vs. Smith winner fight Bivol because last week, he stated that he wasn’t interested in making that fight.
Arum’s rationale for not being interested in letting Bivol fight the Beterbiev-Smith winner is because he fights on the DAZN app while those two are with ESPN.
Given Arum’s stance, it leaves Bivol with no choice but to look in another direction for his next fight.
The fans would like to see the undisputed championship at 175, but that don’t be possible without Arum changing his mind. We don’t know whether Arum’s valid reason for not wanting Bivol to fight the Beterbiev vs. Smith winner is because he fights on DAZN.
It could be that he views Bivol as a threat to those two fighters, as he already beat Smith in 2019. The way Bivol dominated Joe Smith Jr, it’s fair to say that he would likely do it again.
IBF/WBC champion Beterbiev (17-0, 17 KOs) would be a more challenging fight for Bivol, to be sure, but he would have problems with his speed.
Beterbiev appeared to have slowed down in terms of hand & foot speed since 2019, and he would have problems with Bivol’s mobility & combination punching.
The unbeaten Gilberto Ramirez is the WBC mandatory for Beterbiev, and he’s well known to the hardcore boxing fans in the U.S. However, he’s not popular, and he’s huge for the 175-lb weight class.
Ramirez rehydrated to 204 lbs for his last fight against Dominic Boesel on May 14th, making him a heavyweight on the night.
