WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol is very interested in the winner of Saturday's fight between Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith - who battle for the IBF, WBC, WBO titles at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Bivol has become a hot item since shocking Canelo Alvarez last month, with a dominant twelve round unanimous decision.
The Russian boxer already holds a lopsided twelve round decision win over Smith.
If Beterbiev wins, it would certainly set the stage for a bruising battle between countrymen.
Andrey Ryabinskiy, Bivol's promoter, told Sky Sports that his boxer will be an interested observer in Saturday's unification showdown.
"We like both of these fighters [Beterbiev and Smith] very much. Bivol would be extremely interested in having a fight against the winner of this bout, especially if the winner is Artur Beterbiev. The fight between Bivol-Beterbiev is a long-awaited dream of all boxing fans," Ryabinskiy said.
Top Rank President Todd DuBoef, who promotes Beterbiev, likes the idea of match with Bivol.
However, he cautions that there are several options at play - like WBO mandatory challenger Anthony Yarde.
"We've over the years had conversations about Bivol and Beterbiev fighting. When things during Covid kind of locked up and everything was in paralysis it didn't go very far," DuBoef told Sky Sports. "I think that pot has gotten bigger as a result of the emergence of Bivol who came from nowhere with the big upset.
"I think that division obviously got a bit of a boost when Bivol upset Canelo. But there will be plenty of options for the winner of this fight. "You have a guy, Anthony Yarde from your neck of the woods [in the UK] that is a mandatory challenger for that [WBO title]. So he's going to be thrown into the mix. Bivol is in the mix obviously and you got guys like Gilberto Ramirez and things like that. I think there's really a lot of matches in that division now."
