By Luke Furman
Promoter Andrei Ryabinsky of World of Boxing - who guide the career of WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (12-0, 10 KOs) - predicts a very bright future for his fighter.
Two weeks ago, Bivol made his HBO televised debut with a vicious first round knockout of Australian Trent Broadhurst.
Bivol is now looking to unify the light heavyweight division - and that goal could include fighting two of his countrymen.
This past Saturday night, Russia's Artur Beterbiev (12-0, 12 KOs) captured the IBF light heavyweight title with a twelfth round TKO of Enrico Koelling.
And next week, former champion Sergey Kovalev (30-2-1, 26 KOs) of Russia will battle Vyacheslav Shabranskyy for the vacant WBO world title.
Ryabinsky is very close with Kovalev. While he doesn't want to Bivol to fight him - the Russian promoter realizes that fate will dictate that scenario as both boxers have expressed their desire to unify the entire weight class.
"What's next for Bivol are title defenses, both voluntary and mandatory. I would like to get him unification fights. Bivol can collect all of the belts. I believe that he is 100% capable of accomplishing this. Will he gather all the belts? It's too early to talk about it, but there is the possibility. I realize that in this division there are excellent boxers - including Sergey Kovalev," Ryabinksy said.
"I like [Kovalev] very much, he's a great guy. We are acquainted, we are friends. He's a great boxer. Sergey has already written himself into the history books of boxing. He owned three belts. He could have captured a fourth [title] if the other boxer had not have been such a coward [Adonis Stevenson]. But maybe his time is already running out. Or maybe, on the contrary - Kovalev will return to the ring in a new and improved manner. Let's see."
"I would not want such a fight [between Bivol and Kovalev], because both them are from our country and they are our fighters. But fate may bring them together and then the fight will take place."
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.
