Eddie Hearn believes Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev could accept deciding fight
Mar 6, 2025 • 6:00 PM ET
Eddie Hearn’s “gut feeling” is that Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev will do battle a third time.
The Matchroom promoter, who said the second fight between his boxer Bivol – the undisputed champion at 175lbs – and Beterbiev was the finest he had seen in person, has for years promoted Bivol, who on February 22 avenged his loss in October to Beterbiev.
“I think His Excellency [Turki Alalshikh] will want to do the third fight, a trilogy, which I understand because the first two were incredible,” said Hearn. “I also think that he’ll want that to try and remain undisputed, but there will be a lot of pressure from the governing bodies now – like Callum Smith is mandatory with the WBO.
“There’s a German fighter [Michael Eifert] that's mandatory with the IBF. Benavidez is mandatory with the WBC and could be called. Do you know what I mean? So trying to keep that [the undisputed championship] together.”
As highly skilled as both fights have been, they have also been hard nights for both. And if there is a trilogy, there will be plenty of fighters vying for position to take on the winner of their rivalry.
“I don’t think the [trilogy] fight would happen till the end of the year or towards the end of the year anyway,” Hearn said.
“I think he’s up for Callum Smith, he’s up for Benavidez, he’s up for Beterbiev III. But my gut feeling is that we’ll see the trilogy.”
On Wednesday, Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the WBC, confirmed that the organization had ordered Bivol to fight their interim light-heavyweight champion, Benavidez.
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
