The only upside to Dmitry Bivol’s downtime is that it now puts him on the same schedule as his next intended target.

A thirteen-month inactive stretch precedes the unbeaten WBA light heavyweight titlist’s upcoming defense versus England’s Lyndon Arthur this Saturday at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. With a win, Bivol will immediately turn his attention to the January 13 Artur Beterbiev-Callum Smith lineal, WBC, IBF and WBO light heavyweight championship in Quebec City Canada.

“I want to fight for all the belts,” Bivol stated unequivocally to DAZN’s Ade Oladipo and Darren Barker when asked of the one fight he wanted next. “Beterbiev or Smith, it doesn’t matter. I want the winner.”  

Bivol (21-0, 11KOs) spent all of 2023 calling for an undisputed championship showdown versus Beterbiev (19-0, 19KOs), the monstrous punching two-time Russian Olympian who is now based in Montreal.

Beterbiev fought just once on the year, an eighth-round knockout of England’s Anthony Yarde on January 23 at OVO Arena Wembley in London. Injuries postponed his ordered WBC mandatory versus Liverpool’s Smith (29-1, 21KOs) to where he will be out of the ring for 50 months by fight night.

It’s been worse for Bivol, who was the universally recognized 2022 Fighter of the Year but whose 2023 campaign was spent chasing dead ends.

Previously at the top of his list was a discussed rematch versus Guadalajara’s Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, who Bivol defeated last May to end the Mexican superstar’s nine-year, sixteen-fight unbeaten streak. The two sides picked up talks some time after Bivol’s lopsided win over Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez to round out his 2022 Fighter of the Year campaign.

However, the two never came close to seeing eye to eye. Meanwhile, Bivol’s only other desired option—Beterbiev—has been submerged in mandatory title defenses in between inactive periods.

For now, he settles for a voluntary defense versus Manchester’s Arthur (23-1, 16KOs). After this, it has to be back to business in the year ahead.

“I feel great to have a fight,” noted Bivol. “I already feel the smell of Saturday night. I want to enjoy more of that.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox