Vadim Kornilov, manager of WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, views Gilberto Ramirez as the ideal opponent for his boxer.

The 29-year-old Bivol has 17 victories, no defeats and 11 knockouts. The Russian boxer last fought in October in Chicago, when he dropped and dominated Lenin Castillo from the Dominican Republic for a one-sided twelve round unanimous decision.

It was the second win of the year for Bivol, who picked up a lopsided twelve round decision over Joe Smith in March.

The 28-year-old Ramirez, who has a record of 40-0 with 26 knockouts, has been out of the ring since April of last year.

Ramirez was the former WBO super middleweight champion. He dropped the title to make a move to 175-pounds last year. So far he's had a single fight in the weight class, gaining a stoppage victory over Tommy Karpency last year.

Ramirez, due to the WBO rules, is now the mandatory challenger to their world title at light heavyweight. The world champion was Canelo Alvarez, who knocked out Sergey Kovalev in November to win the belt. Canelo has since vacated the title and plans to move back down in weight.

Bivol is coming back in the coming months, according to his management.

“We hope that Bivol’s next fight will take place in March or April. Ideally, it would be nice to meet with Gilberto Ramirez in the next match. Obviously, this fight is interesting for both television and the boxing public,” Kornilov said to Vasiliy Konov.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.