The challenges don’t get any easier for Dmitry Bivol who just wrote his name into the history books.
After avenging his loss in the rematch, fight fans called for a third fight between Bivol and Artur Beterbiev following another great clash between them.
They’re now tied at one win each and there is a clear mutual respect between them with Bivol thanking Beterbiev after going 12-rounds with him for a second time.
However, the sport of boxing waits for no man and there’s always another contender waiting around each and every corner waiting to have their name called.
After Bivol became the 11th undisputed champion of the four-belt era, another elite fighter is already close on his heels.
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WBC declares Dmitry Bivol must fight David Benavidez next
Instead of booking the trilogy fight between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev next, the WBC has other plans for the undisputed light heavyweight champion.
On February 25, the governing body put out their status update for each division, naming what will be next for the WBC champions and when the next title challengers will be decided.
In the light heavyweight division, the previous status said that the winner of the fight between interim champion David Benavidez and David Morell will become the mandatory challenger for the division, meaning they will face either Bivol or Beterbiev.
On February 1 in Las Vegas, Benavidez continued his strong start to life at light heavyweight by beating Morell on the scorecards to remain undefeated at 30-0.
The 28-year-old ‘Mexican Monster’ was in attendance for ‘The Last Crescendo’ in Riyadh in order to sit ring-side for the main event.
In the WBC’s status, it very clearly states with no room for interpretation:
“Dmitry Bivol must fight David Benavidez next.”
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David Benavidez said that Dmitry Bivol would be his preferred option
After beating David Morell, David Benavidez had some time to sit and think about what could be next for him before the Bivol vs Beterbiev rematch took place.
He said after his win that he was confident that either fight would come together unless they decided to do another rematch which in that case, he would wait for the winner.
In an interview on The Ariel Helwani Show, Benavidez said that he would prefer to face Dmitry Bivol out of the two even if him winning the rematch against Beterbiev could lead to a trilogy.
“To be honest with you, I would pick Bivol because Bivol beat Canelo. So basically, when I beat Bivol, that would make my case even better to Canelo and I know Dmitry Bivol really well, I sparred him a lot. He’s a great fighter and we’ve had a lot of great sparring sessions so I definitely would love to fight Bivol.”