WBA light heavyweight world champion Dmitry Bivol is open to the idea of facing unbeaten contender Gilberto Ramirez, according to the Russian boxer's manager Vadim Kornilov.

The 29-year-old Bivol has 17 wins (11 by KO) and not a single defeat, while the 28-year-old Ramirez has 40 victories (26 by KO) and also has not suffered a single defeat.

Bivol made two defenses in 2019. He returned to the ring in march and dominated Joe Smith over twelve rounds for a lopsided decision win. And then he repeated the same feat in October, when he defeated Lenin Castillo.

Bivol is looking for major fights in 2020, and he doesn't rule out the idea of dropping down to super middleweight for the right opponent, like Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez.

Ramirez saw action only once in 2019, when he dropped the WBO super middleweight title and made his light heavyweight debut with a fourth round stoppage of Tommy Karpency.

Ramirez is now in the number one ranked position for a crack at the WBO's title at 175. The belt recently became vacant after Canelo dropped the title. The number two ranked contender is Umar Salamov. It remains to be seen if Ramirez and Salamov will face each other for the now open strap.

"The possibility of a fight with Gilberto Ramirez in 2020.... this fight is interesting to us and the fans. If this fight became a unification for the WBA and WBO titles, it would attracted a lot of attention,” said Kornilov to Tass.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.