By: Sean Crose
“I have just received a cold and impersonal notification from Dmitry Bivol lawyer, Patrick English,” Mauricio Sulaiman, head of the World Boxing Council, stated on social media Monday, “with arguments that are so ridiculous that I rather not discuss informing the WBC that Dmitry Bivol has decided to relinquish his WBC light heavyweight championship. We wish Bivol success and hereby confirm David Benavidez as WBC world light heavyweight champion” And so the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world is undisputed no longer. Bivol was recently left with a choice – fighting arch rival Artur Beterbiev for a third time, or taking on the thunderous David Benavidez.
Bivol decided he wanted a third match with Beterbiev, which led the WBC (which had ordered the Benavidez fight) to subsequently strip Bivol of his WBC belt. Both Beterbiev and Bivol have a single win a piece over each other. Likewise, each man has lost to the other on a single occasion. Both fights have been competitive, high end affairs. Benevidez, on the other hand, is an extremely impressive fighter looking for a worthy opponent. He now has the WBC title that belonged to Bivol just a day ago, but he’s yet to square off against true first rate competition.
MSM quotes Benavidez promoter Sampson Lewkowicz as saying: “The third Bivol-Beterbiev fight will be another great fight. They have had two entertaining fights but the American public didn’t care…it only sold 45,000… Bivol against Benavidez in America would sell much, much more here.” While that certainly might be true, it’s clear Bivol is looking to put a bow on his trilogy with Beterbiev. Choosing a third fight with Beterbiev over a throwdown with Benevidez is indeed an interesting choice for Bivol to make, especially when one considers Benavidez will likely be lying in wait for the winner.
“He gave up the title because he didn’t want to face Benavidez,” said Lewkowicz. “He really wants to do the trilogy with Beterbiev. But everybody should know this: We will give the winner the opportunity to get the WBC title back at any time. We are one phone call away to make this fight happen.” This is a situation where there was really no right or wrong decision for Bivol to make. So long as Beneavidez gets the winner, the boxing public will likely be happy. As, of course, will be Beterbiev. He’s waited a long time for his chance as it is.
