The WBO Committee has decided to authorize the champion of light heavy goods vehicles Dmitry Bivol to fight his trilogy match with Artur Betbiev rather than defending himself against the compulsory challenger Callum Smith. The WBO Smith acting champion (31-2, 22 kB) can then be voluntary. The WBO notes the interest of fans to see the trilogy fighting between Bivo (24-1, 22 KB) and Bettebiev (21-1, 20 KB). Bivol won the revenge match by a majority decision of 12 rounds by the 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114 scores.
Where’s new blood?
The American boxing public is tired of seeing Bivo and Betbiev Fight. They want to see a new blood to have a chance, but not necessarily Callum. He has already fought the former IBF, WBC, WBO, Beterbiev champion last year in January and was eliminated in the seventh round. American fans want to see David Benavidez and David Morrell get a crack to fight for the world titles at 175 against Bivol instead of seeing him Beterbiev fight a third time.
When the champions fight the same person three times, it is unfair that the contenders expect their opportunity to compete for a world title. These fights eat two years, and it’s long. Who can say that Turki Alashikh decides to see a fourth immediate fight between Bivol and Beterbiev if he decides to do so? How many times does the Turki insist that Bivol and Beterbiev continue to fight? There must be new rules in place to prevent champions from fighting the same competitor several times, because it is boring at some point.
No room to grow?
In addition, he finds the growth of sport because fans only see the same two fighters on several occasions in revenge that extend in years. Imagine that this happens in other sports where team owners decide that they want to have three consecutive super bowls or NBA qualifiers involving the same teams simply because their matches were competitive. This would harm the leagues. He does the same in boxing.
Re: Light WBo Lightweight Compulsory
1. The WBO Championship Committee has resolved that it was in the best interest in boxing and, above all, the fighters themselves allow the eagerly awaited trilogy of Beterbiev / Bivolbol to proceed as planned.
– Gustavo Olivieri, esq. (@Olivierilaw) May 14, 2025
Last update on 05/14/2025
