By Luke Furman

IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (13-0, 13 KOs) has no problem with facing WBA champion Dmitry Bivol (14-0, 11 KOs) in a unification.

Beterbiev shares the same trainer as WBO champion Eleider Alvarez, and WBC champion Adonis Stevenson is fighting mandatory challenger Oleksandr Gvozdyk in December. 

On Saturday night in Chicago, Beterbiev recovered from an earlier knockdown to score a knockout victory over heavy handed Callum Johnson of the UK.

Bivol, who is scheduled to return in December, is also hoping to get himself a unification encounter.

He was hoping to face Sergey Kovalev, who got knocked out in August by Alvarez. On that same card in Atlantic City, Bivol secured a dominant decision win over veteran Isaac Chilemba.

Bivol was fighting on HBO, which recently announced their intention to drop all boxing programming at the end of year. Beterbiev is aligned with the DAZN streaming app, which carried his fight with Johnson.

"I do not have a problem facing Bivol, but I can not predict the future," said Beterbiev to The Montreal Journal.

"Boxing is a job for me. Whether it's against Bivol or another boxer, it's still a boxing match and nothing more."

Marc Ramsay, the head trainer of Montreal boxer of Chechen descent, says, "all he wants are the big challenges, that's he wants to do."

In recent weeks, his promoter Yvon Michel has raised the possibility that Beterbiev can return to the ring on December 8, since he picked up a quick win on Saturday.

However, the boxer has been clear about this potential fight - due to the legal stress with Michil.

"I do not care about his plans for me," said Beterbiev. "I am waiting to see the rest of the things with my case against GYM. If I still have contractual links with Yvon, we'll see if it's possible."

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org