Dmitry Yuriyevich Bivol vs. Craig L. Richards

May 1st @ Manchester Arena, co-main event of the Chisora vs. Parker card. WBA super world light heavyweight title at stake, Bivol's second defense.* Richards is ranked WBA #5 (as well as IBF #7 and WBO #12) coming off his December knockout victory over previously unbeaten Shakan Pitters to claim the BBBofC title at 175.

*There is some confusion with this, as the WBA elevated Bivol from regular to super champ just two days before his scheduled defense versus Lenín Castillo in October 2019. So that was technically his first defense of the super championship, not his sixth defense of the regular as it had originally been scheduled (and even now as BoxRec still has it listed). Officially he made five defenses of the regular title, having never actually won the belt in the ring, just, once again, being promoted from interim champ to regular - from Trent Broadhurst through Joe Smith.

If this seems like a dubious choice of contender, have a gander at the WBA rankings - it could be worse. They're really quite baffling; even in the fractured alphabet era you'd be hard pressed to find anybody that agreed with their idea of the world's top 15 light heavies. They have one credible name, Badou Jack, but all the way down at #11 - and no Vlasov, Buatsi, GRS, Kovalev etc. Hell, they have Bastie Samir ranked! The last I heard that name he was a Ghanaian middleweight prospect living and training in the US, a decade ago. It seems he is still active with his zero still intact, but in all these years has never stepped up and fought a ranked live body. Yet he's WBA #13. Go figure. Richards is hardly the bottom of this barrel.

 

A gold doubloon to any e-sleuths that can find out what Richards' middle initial L stands for. (but no kudos if you just DM him on Twitter, because I could easily do that )

 

Oh and the plot thickens btw: his Instagram username is Craig "I" (that is, capital I, not lowercase L) Richards...but his Twitter handle is Craig L...

So there's ambiguity surrounding the middle initial, let alone what it stands for.

...and yes this will be driving me nuts until fight night if unresolved.

 

That's my read too. You beat Pitters, okay, fair play, but you also lost to Buglioni so...

I don't think Bivol ought to lose much sleep, even with a sixteen month layoff.

 

He was actually planning to a couple of years ago. He wanted to challenge Mundo Smith for the belt he then held.