NEW YORK – Eddie Hearn acknowledges that Dmitry Bivol won’t go up against an elite light heavyweight when he encounters Lenin Castillo on Saturday night in Chicago.
As one of three promoters working with Bivol, however, finding fighters that are willing to box Bivol, and for reasonable purses, has become a challenging chore. Securing an opponent for this outing was particularly difficult because the three light heavyweight champions Bivol really wants to face already were committed to high-profile, profitable fights of their own.
“It’s really hard to find opponents for Dmitry Bivol,” Hearn told BoxingScene.com. “Tell me some other names at 175 to fight. I study the rankings fanatically. It’s just been very difficult to get guys who are willing to fight him.”
Russia’s Artur Beterbiev (14-0, 14 KOs) and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gvozdyk (17-0, 14 KOs) are scheduled to fight Friday night in Philadelphia for Beterbiev’s IBF light heavyweight title and Gvozdyk’s WBC belt. Two weeks later, Russia’s Sergey Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KOs) will defend his WBO 175-pound championship against Mexican icon Canelo Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) on November 2 in Las Vegas.
Russia’s Bivol (16-0, 11 KOs), the WBA champion, doesn’t have a mandatory defense due. The 28-year-old champion easily defeated the WBA’s No. 1 contender, Jean Pascal, last November 24 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, eight months before Pascal (34-6-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) upset Marcus Browne by technical decision to win the WBA’s interim light heavyweight title.
That left Bivol to make an optional defense while awaiting a more meaningful fight. After failing to finalize deals with contenders ranked in the WBA’s top 15, Bivol’s handlers settled on the Dominican Republic’s Lenin Castillo (20-2-1, 15 KOs).
Hearn had to petition the WBA to rank Castillo in its top 15, a requirement to fight for Bivol’s title. Castillo appeared at No. 15 when the WBA released its most recent rankings.
Hearn, Matchroom Boxing’s managing director, thought he had a deal arranged with American Charles Foster to battle Bivol as part of DAZN’s stream Saturday night from Wintrust Arena. Foster, a southpaw from New Haven, Connecticut, is ranked No. 7 among the WBA’s light heavyweight contenders.
“Charles Foster wanted too much money,” Hearn said. “And in the end, we said, ‘OK.’ And then he went, ‘No.’ But no disrespect to Charles Foster – he’s not as good as Lenin Castillo. He’s a good, game fighter. And I liked him because he’s an American. But he’s also never beaten anybody. Castillo was a very good amateur. He went the distance and lost on points to Marcus Browne. He can fight. So, he’s a little bit dangerous.”
Castillo knocked down Browne in the fifth round of their fight 14 months ago in Uniondale, New York. Browne (23-1, 16 KOs) got up and continued to out-box Castillo on his way to winning a unanimous decision in their 10-rounder.
Assuming Bivol overcomes Castillo, the tentative plan is for him to make his next title defense in South Korea.
“He had a good win against Joe Smith,” Hearn said, referring to Bivol’s points win in his last fight, March 9 in Verona, New York. “And now he’s in with Castillo. But after that, you’ve got to really do something different. There’s talks now about doing a big fight in Korea for Dmitry Bivol, because he’s half Korean. So, after this fight, we’re going to Korea to talk about the possibility of that. He’s gonna do a little media tour out there as well.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.