ACCORDING to his manager, undisputed light-heavyweight king Dmitry Bivol has expressed a surprising interest in facing WBC world cruiserweight champion Badou Jack.
The 34-year-old dethroned his rival, Artur Beterbiev, with a majority decision victory last month after losing their first encounter by the same margin.
But while a trilogy between the two formidable operators appears to be the likely next step, Bivol, 24-1 (12 KOs), and his manager, Vadim Kornilov, have begun to explore alternative options.
From Kornilov’s perspective, a third fight with Beterbiev would take priority over a possible showdown with WBC mandatory challenger David Benavidez.
With a purse bid for the Benavidez fight scheduled for April 8, though, Bivol would more than likely be forced to vacate his green and gold strap.
In any case, the talented technician has seemingly allowed his mind to wander in recent weeks, with Jack, 28-3-3 (17 KOs), emerging as an unexpected option.
The multi-division titlist claimed the WBC cruiserweight crown at the beginning of 2023, flooring Ilunga Makabu twice before halting proceedings in the 12th round.
Since then, ‘The Ripper’ has remained out of the ring but will nonetheless put his belt on the line against mandatory challenger Ryan Rozicki on May 3, featuring on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez vs William Scull.
And while Kornilov has tried to steer his fighter towards a lucrative rematch with Canelo, it seems that Bivol is more interested in seeing how Jack looks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“Dmitry’s been talking about the cruiserweight situation a lot,” Kornilov told Andi Purewal’s Boxing News.
“He feels very confident [in moving up to 200lbs]. Dmitry was like, ‘I want to see Badou Jack [when he fights Rozicki in Riyadh].’
“I didn’t expect that, but he wanted to see Badou Jack fight. That’s something interesting we talked about.”
With Jack reaching the age of 41, Bivol is not the only fighter to sense that he is there for the taking, with former world champions Chris Billam-Smith and Callum Smith, too, having recently targeted a fight with the veteran.
