The WBO committee decided to allow the light heavyweight champion Dmitri Bivol to fight his trilogy match with Artur Betterbiev rather than defending against the compulsory challenger Callum Smith next. Interim WBO champion Smith (31-2, 22 CO’s) can wage next voluntary battle. The WBO marks the interest of fans to see the trilogy battle between Biblical (24-1, 22 COs) and Betterbiev (21-1, 20 COs). Biblical won the re-broadcast by a 12-round majority decision by the scores 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114.
Where is new blood?
The American box public is getting tired of seeing Biblical and Betterbiev fight. They want to see new blood get a chance, but not necessarily callum. He fought better in January in the former IBF, WBC, WBC champion and was knocked out in the seventh round. American fans want to see David Benavidez and David Morrell get a crack to fight for world titles at 175 against Biblical, instead of seeing him fight a third time in a row.
As champions fight against the same person three times, it is unfair to the contenders waiting for their opportunity to compete for a world title. These battles eat two years, and it’s been a long time. Who should say that Turki Alalshikh decides to see an immediate fourth battle between Biblical and Betterbiev if he decides to do so? How many times will Turki insist that BiVol and Betterbiev continue to fight? There must be new rules in place to prevent champions from fighting repeatedly with the same contender, because it is boring at some point.
No room to grow?
In addition, it stunts the growth of the sport because fans repeatedly see the same two fighters repeatedly in re -broadcast that runs for years. Imagine that this is happening in other sports, where the team owners decide that they want three consecutive Super Bowls or NBA playoffs involving the same teams just because their matches were competitive. It will hurt the leagues. It does the same thing in box.
Re: WBO light heavyweight mandatory
1. The WBO Championships Committee has decided that it is in the best interests of boxing, and most importantly, the fighters themselves to allow the highly expected betterbiev/Biblical trilogy to continue as planned.
– Gustavo Olivieri, ESQ. (@Olivieriilaw) 14 May 2025
Last updated on 05/14/2025
