{"id":752048,"date":"2026-08-28T02:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T02:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/752048\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T02:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T02:40:09","slug":"dmitri-bivol-callum-smith-strike-deal-for-december-12-title-fight-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/752048\/","title":{"rendered":"Dmitri Bivol, Callum Smith strike deal for December 12 title fight in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">The promoters for three-belt light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol and his WBO No. 1 contender Callum Smith have struck a deal for their mandatory bout.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">WBO president Gustavo Olivieri confirmed the news in a post on X, stating an announcement on a date and location for the contest would come from the involved parties in due course. <\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">An official close to negotiations told BoxingScene that the fight will take place on December 12 in Russia, the home nation of champion Bivol.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">England\u2019s Smith, 31-2 (22 KOs), elevated to the top WBO spot by defeating Joshua Buatsi by unanimous decision on the February 2025 card when Bivol avenged a prior loss to undisputed light-heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev by majority decision in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Russia\u2019s Bivol, 25-1 (12 KOs), later underwent back surgery, returning to the ring on May 30 to dispose of IBF mandatory Michael Eifert by unanimous decision in Russia.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Beterbiev, 41, has been sidelined since the Bivol bout and pushing for a trilogy bout that now will be further delayed while the remaining light-heavyweight champion, David Benavidez, is moving toward a mid-December defense of his WBA\/WBO cruiserweight titles versus Michal Cieslak in Arizona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The promoters for three-belt light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol and his WBO No. 1 contender Callum Smith have struck&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6102,10078,10271,248343,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-752048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-callum-smith","tag-dmitri-bivol","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752048","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=752048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}