Comments Thread For: Dmitry Bivol: I Don't Want To Fight For The Sake of Fighting - I Want a 'Good Fight'

[Thuglife Nelo]

I think bivol is small at the weight. Looks like he could make 168

He’s way bigger than Plant and I’ve studied some of their heavybag work, physiques. I guess you could say Plant isn’t “big” for 168. There is a video online from Plant’s trainer saying they could make 160.

[Boxing Logic]

I know where your coming from but he would have to aim for another recognisable name. Chavez stick has taken a big hit after the Jacobs fight. It would have to be a ranked guy because he's a belt holder

I think he should drop to 168 and go for Saunders

Apparently, Bivol doesnt sell as many tickets in the UK as the UK guys do in the UK, or the Hispanics or Americans do in the US. Thats my guess why he isnt getting any fights vs any of the name UK or Hispanic and US boxers. They fed him a 2nd tier American name, Joe Smith Jr, just like they fed Kovalev, Lomachenko, and GGG 2nd tier American and Hispanic names and UK (Cedric Agnew, Nathan Cleverley, Rocky Martinez, Anthony Crolla, Rigondeaux, Walters, Linares, Curtis Stevens, Matthew Macklin, Martin Murray, Daniel Jacobs), but just like with Kovalev, Lomachenko, and GGG, the top tier American, Hispanic, and UK ticket sellers are either off limits completely or losses that use the foreign guy as a stepping stone to build the name of the other guy, rather than vice versa (Mikey Garcia, Tank Davis, Leo Santa Cruz, Abner Mares, Orlando Salido, Andre Ward, Canelo Alvarez, Jermall Charlo, etc etc. All these guys the east euros were either not able to fight at all, or lost to them. Zero wins).

In other words, Bivol is not allowed to fight the bigger names and win because the promoters don't want to trade a bigger name's undefeated brand for a smaller undefeated brand, and Bivol is not allowed to fight the big names and lose yet because it's not a big enough fight to be worth sacrificing his undefeated brand prematurely.

But most likely, his career is headed in that direction of being a stepping stone for maybe David Benavidez or someone like that moving up to 175 in the future. But maybe it's possible, if Beterbiev passes the torch to Bivol and not to an American or Hispanic or UK fighter (which is what usually happens, but maybe because Beterbiev isn't a big name either, they will do like cruiserweight and stack the east euro names into one folder to create one star, like Usyk, who will probably pass the torch to an American or Hispanic or UK in the future now that he's built up star power, instead of passing the torch to one right away before the torch is well lit...), that Bivol could become enough of a ticket seller to be "the guy" at 175. But since that wasn't the case for GGG or Kovalev or Loma, it's hard to imagine it will be for Bivol, who seems less popular than any of those prior guys, because those prior guys were all built over the long term on HBO, while Bivol only got a few showcases at the very end of HBO's run, and his exposure on HBO was probably not even 40% of the other comparables.

In other words, don't get too attached to Bivol, that's my advice. He may have speed and power, but he lacks the only talent in pro boxing that matters. He doesn't sell PPVs, or even tickets, in big economic markets, very well.

[Boxing Logic]

He’s way bigger than Plant and I’ve studied some of their heavybag work, physiques. I guess you could say Plant isn’t “big” for 168. There is a video online from Plant’s trainer saying they could make 160.

Bivol is bigger than Plant, but smaller than Zurdo Ramirez, David Benavidez, Caleb Plant, and probably Jose Uzcategui too. And smaller than Hurd. And probably smaller than both Charlos and Munguia too.

I used to think that showed how great Bivol was, or other fighters in similar scenarios like that, that he could be smaller than 154 pounders, but more dominant at 175 pounds than they are at 154.

Now I know better. All it really means is the promoters believe that the Mexican and American Munguia and Charlos have more future $$$ selling potential than Bivol, so it makes more sense to start them at lower weights so that they can move up from 154 to 168 or 175 in the future and then be marketed as "multi division champions" to add to their marketability. Whereas with Bivol, he will never be a big star no matter what because he's Russian, so just stick him at 175 and do the best you can with him, but that way, he only takes up 1 slot at 175, and we can reserve multiple slots for the Americans and Hispanics from 154 to 160 to 168 to 175, and juggle them up the weight categories every few years to build them into PPV stars.

And instead of fighting back against this unfair situation, it seems, well it's just my opinion nothing more, but it seems IMO that Bivol was happy to go along with it. So why bother supporting him anymore IF that's the case?

I feel the same thing happened with the Russian Israel Madrimov. He is Spence's size, but Spence started at 147, the American money division, Madrimov started at 154. So Madrimov will always get less credit for his accomplishments because he started higher. Why would he do that? Why would he limit his own career, both legacy wise and financially? Multi-weight champs get bigger paychecks, all else equal. Yet he started at 154 anyway. It seems like he is putting other boxers careers, or his promoter's preferences, above his own career. As a fan, that's not interesting to support.

I remember saying the same thing about Max Dadeshev, how this was a 135 pounder fighting at 140 and I didnt understand why. Then apparently he fought someone who outweighed him by 20 pounds at noon on fight day (fight night weight difference is unknown) and supposedly Dadashev was killed in that fight.

But that seems to be how it goes. These guys careers dont matter. They're not the A-side attraction. They dont get started at 135 so they can move up and be a P4P king as the #1 welterweight. They get started at 140 so they can be built into B side names to lose to A-side welterweights. They don't get started at 154 pounds so they can take over every division between 154 and 175 and become P4P King of the sport. They get started at 175 so they can be built into a B-side name to hype up Andre Ward when he moves up from 168 to 175, or Canelo Alvarez moving up, or maybe now it would Benavidez or Plant or Charlo.

[ShoulderRoll]

Bivol is just rotting away, hasn't fought in over a year and counting.

Another victim of DAZN.

[Thuglife Nelo]

Bivol is bigger than Plant, but smaller than Zurdo Ramirez, David Benavidez, Caleb Plant, and probably Jose Uzcategui too. And smaller than Hurd. And probably smaller than both Charlos and Munguia too.

You need glasses dude. Bivol is bigger than Plant, Jermall Charlo, Munguía, Uzcategui...

Bivol is bigger in the ring than his weigh in. He doesn’t add on more water than Joe Smith Jr. like 15lbs. Probably around 10lbs max. I’d say Bivol is 183lbs in the ring. Walk around weight, gym videos, Bivol is fit and muscular, bigger than his ring appearances and not soft like the other guys you mention.

[Nightfall]

No way in the world does Alvared fight Bivol.🥊

[JakeTheBoxer]

No way in the world does Alvared fight Bivol.🥊

Bivol beats everybody at 175, he probably beats Beterbiev also.

[Mammoth]

Bivol beats everybody at 175, he probably beats Beterbiev also.

I always picked Beterbiev. In my head he was just too big, too strong but really if Bivol can control the distance the whole night and rack up points, which isn't impossible, he can win.

[xEcto1x]

Unfortunately, this is not a strategy that has proven to work in generating either money or career defining fights. Shame because I’m massively high on Bivol as a fighter, could see him as a 2 division or possibly lineal champ given his talent which says A LOT given the competition in those two weight classes.

[kiaba360]

Bivol, Beterbiev, Kovalev, Pascal, Browne, and Barrera have all been inactive. CoVid has hurt the LHW division the most. The only bright light has been Joe Smith Jr.