Via Dan Ambrose: WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol is ready to fight the next IBF/WBC/WBO champion Artur Beterbiev, according to Eddie Hearn.
Beterbiev promoter Bob Arum is not interested in making the undisputed fight against Bivol this year, preferring instead to try and pass early next year with whoever holds the WBA belt at that time.
Arum vs. Beterbiev vs. Anthony Yarde in the match voluntary defense his newly won WBO belt that he picked up from Joe Smith Jr last Saturday. Given that this was a voluntary defense for Beterbiev, he was not forced to fight Yarde to prevent him from losing his WBO title.
This is merely a fight that Arum is choosing to take, not for Beterbiev to make a riskier match against Bivol, which is a match he could possibly lose.
Initially, we heard that the reason for the Beterbiev-Yarde fight was that Yarde was supposed to be mandatory by the WBO, but Hearn said that was not the case. This is a voluntary defense for Betterbiev.
Hearn said: “Bivol is ready to fight for the undisputed. Against TV Hub. “If we wait, Bivol will defend and then do a rematch against Canelo.
“What are you waiting for? We don’t have a fight scheduled for Bivol.
“So yes, they have a compulsion it’s not really a requirementbut they’re choosing to include it [Anthony] Yarde]” Hearn said.
Arum is choosing to have Beterbiev voluntarily defend against the twice-defeated Yarde (22-2, 21 KOs) in what is supposed to be a slam dunk win for the unified champion.
Yarde hasn’t beaten anyone close to Beterbiev’s level yet, and he’s capable of completely devoid of his element in a fight that feels more like a carnage than a sporting contest.
“Let’s do the next undisputed thing. Why do we have to wait? The fact is that now everyone knows how good Dmitry Bivol is. Dmitry Bivol is the best 175-pound athlete in the world,” says Hearn.
It would be a good idea for Hearn and Bivol to move on and forget about wasting their time trying to fight Beterbiev because Arum won’t make that match.
Next year will come and go, and Arum will choose to direct Beterbiev to safer seas to fend off opposition less threatening to him.
If Arum is lucky, Canelo will step back to 175 to try to win three belts against Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs). In fact, that’s not going to happen, especially if Canelo loses his rematch against Bivol next May.
Now that Arum has decided to fight Beterbiev against Yarde next October, Bivol will most likely face Joshua Buatsi in September or October in the UK.
Bivol vs. Buatsi won’t do much in terms of bringing in many new subscribers for US boxing fans as they are unfamiliar with the British boxer, but it will garner interest from UK fans.
