Callum Smith has been ordered to face Dmitry Bivol and whilst the fight has been all but confirmed, no official announcement has been made as of yet. Now, the Liverpudlian has broken his silence on the delayed confirmation of the event.
Three-belt unified light-heavyweight world champion Bivol put an end to a 15-month spell on the sidelines when he returned to action and defended his WBA (Super) and IBF titles – but not the WBO – against Michael Eifert in a points win back in May.
Since then, Bivol has been linked to a trilogy clash with Artur Beterbiev, but the 35-year-old has instead opted to fulfil his WBO mandatory and take on Smith, before a third showdown with Beterbiev in April 2027. Although, the show has not yet been formally announced.
On the ‘The Smith Brothers: Not A Podcast’, Callum Smith explained that the reason behind the delay is that they are awaiting news on whether the WBO will sanction this contest – after refusing to do so for the Eifert fight – but ‘Mundo’ remained confident that they will.
“It’s not fully official yet, well it is, but I think that they have got to wait for confirmation off of the WBO to allow the fight in Russia. Obviously, last time they didn’t sanction his last defence there because of the Ukraine war and stuff like that, but from what I am hearing I think that they will [this time].”
Saturday, December 12, is believed to be the targeted date for Bivol-Smith, which is anticipated to take place in Yekaterinburg at the UMMC Arena.
