By Dan Ambrose: WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman expressed his regret to WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol over the WBC’s stance not to sanction fights involving Russian athletes.
Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) feels he’s being treated differently than fellow Russian Artur Beterbiev, who holds the WBC 175-lb title, and the sanctioning body has no problems sanctioning his fights.
Sulaiman says Beterbiev’s case is different because he’s been living and fighting out of Canada for the last 15 years. However, Bivol most lives outside of Russia, so you can make the same argument that he shouldn’t be blocked from competing for the WBC’s belt against IBF/WBC/WBO light heavyweight champion Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs).
The Russian people still view the two-time Olympian Beterbiev as one of their own despite him having dual citizenship status with Canada and Russia.
Sulaiman says Bivol can petition the WBC, as Beterbiev has done in the past, and they’ll decide his case. Perhaps they could change their mind and permit Bivol to face Beterbiev.
That still doesn’t mean that Bivol will get the opportunity to fight Beterbiev for the undisputed 175-lb championship because the real issue seems to be obscured in all this is the lack of enthusiasm Beterbiev’s promoter Bob Arum has in making this fight.
Even before the Russin invasion of Ukraine, Arum was not excited about matching Beterbiev against Bivol. But now that the war has started, Arum is even less interested, saying that he approves of the WBC’s decision not to sanction fights involving Russian athletes while the war continues.
As such, even if the WBC does choose to allow Bivol to fight for their belt, Arum may decide not to make the fight baseedd on his own preferences. On paper, Bivol is a terrible style match-up for Beterbiev due to his movement, defense and his strong chin. Unless Beterbiev can score a knockout, which is unlikely, he’ll lose a decision to Bivol.
Beterbiev arriving back in Russia after the Yarde fight in October. This shitshow is painful! pic.twitter.com/2ZV2TXjU3H
— Steven Volkov (@JamesBecker1999) June 14, 2023
“Our position is not personal, and we’re very sorry if it hurts anyone. We’re a sanctioning body that fights for peace against the abuse of power. It’s very unfortunate he is a victim in this situation,” said WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman Izquierdazo about their decision not to sanction fights involving Russian boxers. “And every time that someone asks me about that, it hurts me.”
Bivol and his manager Vadim Kornilov need to look at Bob Arum’s recent interview on the subject to see things how they really are. It’s pretty clear from watching that interview that Arum wants no part of matching Beterbiev against Bivol, and you really can’t blame him one bit.
He’s got a good thing going with Beterbiev. Why would he want to mess it up by putting him in with a guy that recently schooled Canelo Alvarez and Gilberto Ramirez?
