Dan Rafael reports that undisputed light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol has vacated his light heavyweight title ahead of a scheduled purse bid with interim champion David Benavidez, instead pursuing a rubber match with Artur Beterbiev that will “likely” land in October.
Bivol (24-1, 12 KO), who dropped a narrow decision to Beterbiev (21-1, 20 KO) in their first meeting before gritting out a squeaker of his own four months later, still holds the WBA, WBO, and IBF titles. There’s no telling which of them he’ll still hold come fight night, save for the WBA; Callum Smith picked up the interim WBO title the same night Bivol beat Beterbiev and the IBF has been itching to throw the hapless Michael Eifert at whoever held the belt for ages.
The WBC has yet to comment on this situation. Odds are that they’ll simply elevate Benavidez (30-0, 24 KO), as the top two slots in their rankings are held by Beterbiev and David Morrell Jr, the latter of whom Benavidez overpowered to claim the belt to begin with. They could potentially send in no. 3 Albert Ramirez, but I don’t see it.
