{"id":705303,"date":"2026-07-22T13:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705303\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:42:08","slug":"two-brits-in-line-for-world-title-showdown-as-dmitry-bivol-expected-to-drop-wbo-belt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705303\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Brits in line for world title showdown as Dmitry Bivol expected to drop WBO belt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dmitry Bivol<\/a> looked as if he was ready to move on from a trilogy fight with Artur Beterbiev, but it now seems as though the unified light-heavyweight world champion is ready to run it back with his rival, thus opening the door for two Brits to compete for one of his belts.<\/p>\n

Bivol claimed the undisputed light-heavyweight crown in February 2025 when he avenged his defeat to Beterbiev<\/a> with a majority-decision win, but he soon relinquished the WBC marble \u2013 which was then handed to David Benavidez.<\/p>\n

After 15 months of inactivity, Bivol returned to action in May to fulfil his IBF mandatory and shake off some ring rust against Germany\u2019s Michael Eifert<\/a>, but it was then believed that Bivol would proceed with his WBO mandatory and next face Liverpool\u2019s Callum Smith, much to the frustration of Beterbiev.<\/p>\n

Yet, in an interview with Ring Magazine<\/a>, Bivol\u2019s promoter, Eddie Hearn, has revealed that the 35-year-old is instead keen for a third fight with the Russian-Canadian. Therefore, he expects Bivol to vacate the WBO world title in order to make it happen, with Smith likely to rematch Joshua Buatsi for the vacant belt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unlikely he will defend against Smith. I think Smith will fight Joshua Buatsi for the vacant title. But Dmitry is ready to make the Beterbiev fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith decisioned Buatsi on the Beterbiev-Bivol II undercard in a Fight of the Year contender<\/a> and Smith is yet to fight since, whilst Buatsi was seen as fortunate by some to get the decision when he returned and fought Zach Parker in November.<\/p>\n

Smith and Buatsi could be set to top the bill of the second \u2018Matchroom vs Queensberry\u2019 event, which will likely take place in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dmitry Bivol looked as if he was ready to move on from a trilogy fight with Artur Beterbiev,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-705303","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\/705303","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=705303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}