At the beginning of the year, Dmitry Bivol scored a legendary victory in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev, but the Kyrgyzstan-born phenomenon has not fought since. Now, Eddie Hearn has provided an update on the return of the unified light-heavyweight world champion.
Bivol lost to Beterbiev by majority decision last October, with the latter becoming the first undisputed light-heavyweight champion of the four-belt era. Yet, when the pair collided again in February, Bivol scored a majority-decision win of his own, thus claiming the undisputed title.
Whilst a trilogy clash has been touted ever since, Bivol and Beterbiev are yet to meet for a third occasion. Although, recent rumours have suggested that the fight could potentially take place in Russia at the beginning of 2026.
However, speaking to Boxing News, Eddie Hearn revealed his plans for Bivol to first face one of his mandatory challengers, with March deemed the earliest possible fight date.
“To be honest, I think that the first fight back may be a smaller fight [than the Beterbiev trilogy], maybe one of his mandatory defences – he has got quite a few of them.
“One is Callum Smith [WBO], one is Michael Eifert [IBF], the WBA I think have a mandatory as well.
“He [Bivol] won’t fight before March, so he will have been out of the ring for a year, and he has had a couple of operations, one to his back, which was quite a serious operation.”
Bivol currently reigns as a three-belt unified champion, after vacating the WBC crown back in April, which is now in the possession of David Benavidez. It is understood that Germany’s Michael Eifert would be the front runner for Bivol’s return, as the IBF ordered that contest back in July.
Meanwhile, WBO mandatory challenger Callum Smith is instead poised to take on David Morrell, as the Liverpudlian was ordered to defend his WBO Interim strap against the Santa Clara southpaw and a deal has since been reached.
