If Canelo Alvarez eventually decides he wants to try to avenge his loss to Dmitry Bivol and the unbeaten Bivol were offered enough money, he would grant Alvarez that opportunity.

Bivol is much more interested in facing the winner of the Artur Beterbiev-Callum Smith light heavyweight title fight January 13 at Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada. Battling Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs), the IBF/WBC/WBO 175-pound champion, or Smith (29-1, 21 KOs) would afford Bivol with his own opportunity to become boxing’s first fully unified light heavyweight champion of the four-belt era.

The unbeaten Kyrgyzstan native views a rematch with Alvarez as a fight that the Mexican icon needs, not him, because Bivol won their 12-round, 175-pound championship match so convincingly. Judges Tim Cheatham, Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld all scored Bivol a 115-113 winner over Alvarez in May 2022 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, yet the prevailing feeling among media and fans is that Alvarez deserved to win fewer than five rounds that night.

As Bivol prepares to defend his WBA light heavyweight title against England’s Lyndon Arthur on Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a second fight versus Alvarez is far from his mind.

“To be honest, I didn’t want a rematch too much,” Bivol told BoxingScene.com. “I was enjoying my position. If he wants the rematch, OK. I told [him], ‘OK, we can make it.’ But I didn’t want it so much. You know, I have my own way. If not Canelo, I have another way. No problem.”

Bivol realizes that Alvarez could eventually make a rematch worth his while.

“Canelo has more chances than other fighters in boxing,” Bivol said. “If Canelo wants some fight, he could make this fight. He has more of a chance to influence the situation than other boxers.”

Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) is expected to return to the ring May 4. The four-division champion plans to defend his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles, though, and has repeatedly stated that he would want a rematch versus Bivol at the light heavyweight limit of 175 pounds because he wouldn’t want detractors to criticize him for beating Bivol if he required Bivol to drop down to the super middleweight maximum of 168 for their second fight.

Russia’s Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) will end a 13-month layoff when he squares off against Arthur (23-1, 16 KOs) on the Anthony Joshua-Otto Wallin undercard at Kingdom Arena.

His hiatus was extended in part because Bivol had surgery on his right hand in April, which kept him from using it in training for approximately three months. The 33-year-old Bivol last fought in November 2022, when he outboxed previously unbeaten Mexican contender Gilberto Ramirez (45-1, 30 KOs) and won a 12-round unanimous decision at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

Bivol-Arthur will be part of a pay-per-view show scheduled to start at 11 a.m. ET and 8 a.m. PT in the United States ($39.99).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.