Apparently the past 10 days weren’t quite enough for Dmitry Bivol and Michael Eifert to find common ground.
So, they now have another week.
BoxingScene has confirmed that yet another extension was granted for the abovementioned light heavyweight championship clash. A purse bid hearing previously scheduled for Friday was pushed back by seven days, to now take place on February 20 – absent further developments.
As with the timeline for any purse bid, a deal can still be reached up until the day of – and minutes leading up to – the hearing.
This marks the second delay in the purse bid process alone. The matter was first due to appear before the IBF on February 3 before both parties were granted a 10-day extension. The same concession was made ahead of Friday’s rescheduled hearing.
Bivol – the reigning lineal, Ring, WBA, IBF and WBO 175lbs champ - is with Matchroom Boxing and career-long manager Vadim Kornilov. Eifert fights under the SES banner and is guided by Blanko Sports’ Benedikt “Benny Blanko” Poelchau.
Bivo, 24-1 (12 KOs), inherited Eifert, 13-1 (5 KOs), as the overdue mandatory challenger after his February 2025 majority decision win over Artur Beterbiev. The win saw Bivol become the undisputed champion and avenge his lone career defeat to Beterbiev, 21-1 (20 KOs), from four months prior.
The revised purse bid date will come dangerously close to the one-year anniversary of that rematch, which marks Bivol’s last ring appearance. Amazingly, it’s still more active than has been the case for Germany’s Eifert.
The once-beaten contender has been the top-rated contender since his March 2023 upset win over former lineal and WBC champ Jean Pascal. He’s only had one fight in that span, mostly due to the several stops and starts in the IBF first ordering this fight and then sticking to its guns.
All involved parties were caught off guard when the WBC jumped the line last March and instructed Bivol to next face David Benavidez, who was the WBC interim 175lbs titlist at the time of the ordered title consolidation fight.
WBC officials stood their ground, despite the fact that all the other sanctioning bodies agreed that the IBF was next in the rotation. Bivol ultimately dumped the title, and subsequently underwent back surgery to relieve a long-standing herniated disc.
To date, there are no such plans to relinquish any of his remaining titles.
That said, he is also out of options to apply for an exception. Further unification is off the table, since Benavidez is due to next challenge WBA/WBO cruiserweight titlist Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez on May 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Sanctioning bodies generally allow unifications to trump mandatory title fights as the lone exception, absent medical which Bivol has already exhausted. Beterbiev burned an exception for the IBF mandatory when his team sought permission to instead enter a rematch with Bivol.
