{"id":510108,"date":"2026-04-03T03:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/510108\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T03:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:43:07","slug":"dmitry-bivol-faces-losing-world-title-if-he-follows-through-with-2026-fight-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/510108\/","title":{"rendered":"Dmitry Bivol faces losing world title if he follows through with 2026 fight plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dmitry Bivol<\/a> may not get the fights he wants this year \u2013 or be forced to go through with them one belt down.<\/p>\n

The Russian pound-for-pound star has been out since his rematch with Artur Beterbiev in February 2025, a points win after losing the first fight.<\/p>\n

Bivol\u2019s undisputed reign lasted just a couple of months before he dropped the WBC belt rather than fight mandatory challenger David Benavidez \u2013 who was upgraded to full champion \u2013 in favour of a trilogy with Beterbiev.<\/p>\n

Talks for the trilogy stalled and the unified champion then suffered an injury on his back which required surgery in August<\/a>. Now recovered, he recently announced a mandatory defence against top IBF contender Michael Eifert.<\/a><\/p>\n

He has also named a hit list of opponents that includes the third fight with Beterbiev \u2013 whose team are becoming frustrated by the delay<\/a> \u2013 Benavidez and perhaps a rematch with Canelo Alvarez. Bivol has also not ruled out moving up to cruiserweight to become a two-division world champion.<\/p>\n

Those plans will please fans, but the sanctioning body rotation is now in motion and, as reported by the Ring Magazine<\/a>, the WBO are set to order Bivol to face the winner of Callum Smith vs David Morrell, which takes place on April 18 in Liverpool for the interim title.<\/p>\n

Should Bivol want to keep hold of the WBO belt, which he holds alongside the WBA and IBF, it could have major repercussions for the division.<\/p>\n

Benavidez intends to drop back down to light-heavyweight after his cruiserweight world title challenge against Gilberto Ramirez in May, but the lack of an undisputed clash with Bivol may make him reconsider, or instead pursue Beterbiev.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dmitry Bivol may not get the fights he wants this year \u2013 or be forced to go through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-510108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}