Canelo Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol expect to meet May 7 regardless of whether they fight for Bivol’s WBA light heavyweight title.
BoxingScene.com learned Tuesday night that the WBA’s public stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will not impact the status of the card headlined by Mexico’s Alvarez and Russia’s Bivol. The WBA, along with the IBF, WBC and WBO, have jointly announced that none of those sanctioning organizations will approve championship matches involving Russian boxers as long as this unprovoked attack lasts in Ukraine.
Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs), a WBA 175-pound champion since May 2016, was born in Tokmak, Kyrgyzstan, but he has long resided in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Though a Russian citizen, Bivol has not expressed support for Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has been condemned internationally for initiating the invasion of Ukraine and killing countless innocent Ukrainian citizens. Bivol has arrived in Southern California for a press conference Wednesday in San Diego to officially launch the promotion of his fight versus Alvarez and to begin training camp in Indio.
It was not clear Tuesday night if the typically reserved Bivol will address the war in Russia before, during or after the press conference Wednesday.
Regardless, barring an injury or some other interruption that could cause a delay, Alvarez and Bivol will part ways after Wednesday to complete preparations for a 12-round fight DAZN will stream as part of Alvarez’s two-fight deal with the streaming service that once signed him to an ill-fated 10-fight, $365 million deal.
The card headlined by Alvarez-Bivol is expected to be held either at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas or SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the site last month of Super Bowl LVI and the home venue of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers.
If the WBA doesn’t sanction Alvarez-Bivol as a title fight, it would largely defeat the purpose of Alvarez moving back up to the light heavyweight division. Had he known the Russia-Ukraine war would prohibit the WBA from sanctioning it as a championship match, he could’ve required Bivol to move down from 175 pounds to the 168-pound limit to fight for Alvarez’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles and the accompanying payday.
Alvarez officially chose Bivol over WBC middleweight champ Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) last week for his next fight. An Alvarez-Charlo fight for Alvarez’s four 168-pound championships would’ve been distributed by Showtime Pay-Per-View on May 7.
If Alvarez beats Bivol, he is expected to face rival Gennadiy Golovkin a third time September 17 in another high-profile fight DAZN would stream. Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) also needs to beat Japan’s Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs) in a middleweight title unification fight that’ll probably be rescheduled for an undetermined date this spring to maintain his place in a third fight with Alvarez.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.