{"id":798633,"date":"2026-10-11T00:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T00:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798633\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T00:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T00:50:12","slug":"dmitry-bivol-names-blockbuster-three-man-hit-list-only-these-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798633\/","title":{"rendered":"Dmitry Bivol names blockbuster three-man hit list: “Only these fighters”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dmitry Bivol<\/a> has outlined three potential opponents for 2027, but must first defend his light-heavyweight titles against Callum Smith on December 12.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old comes off a dominant unanimous decision victory over Michael Eifert in May, returning from a 15-month absence to retain his IBF, WBO and WBA straps.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, he became the undisputed 175lb king with a monumental majority decision triumph over Artur Beterbiev, who had edged their first encounter by the exact same margins in October 2024.<\/p>\n

Now, though, Bivol must prove that he remains an elite-level operator against former world super-middleweight champion Smith, with their encounter set to take place in Yekaterinburg, Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If he emerges victorious then the Russian could target a trilogy showdown with Beterbiev, or perhaps even a rematch with Canelo Alvarez, who was unanimously outpointed when they locked horns in 2022.<\/p>\n

From a general fans\u2019 perspective, however, the most appealing opponent for Bivol might be David Benavidez, who became a three-division world champion by dethroning Gilberto Ramirez with a sixth-round stoppage<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n

In doing so, the \u2018Mexican Monster\u2019 claimed the WBO and WBA cruiserweight titles and looks set to remain at 200lb, though Bivol has nonetheless told Inside The Ring<\/a> that he would gladly face the 29-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will tell you which fights are big for me now, and I think people will agree: this is Beterbiev, this is Canelo and this is Benavidez. I think only with these fighters we can make a big fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Benavidez expected to face WBC cruiserweight champion Michal Cieslak on December 5, a victory could then launch him towards a Cinco de Mayo showdown with Jai Opetaia in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dmitry Bivol has outlined three potential opponents for 2027, but must first defend his light-heavyweight titles against Callum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-798633","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\/798633","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=798633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}