Did Bivol duck (and age out) Beterbiev until now?

No. I posted a timeline of events leading up to the undisputed fight on another post.

This fight could have happened in 2023 had the WBC not act like idiots and banned Russian fighters from having unification fights.

 

This.

 

7 years joint title holders. It's ridiculous.

 

Beterbiev and Bivol both became Champions in 2017,one fighter sought out the other Champions for there belts and the other was Hearns Golden Goose and matched accordingly ! 100% both Hearn and Bivol’s plan was to avoid Beterbiev for as long as possible to age him out ! Then the Saudis got involved and the pair of them could avoid him no more !

 

It didn't matter that Bivol became a titleholder in 2017.

At that time, Kovalev and Stevenson were still active. Those were the fights that people wanted to see... Beterbiev/Kovalev, Beterbiev/Stevenson and Kovalev/Steveson. Bivol was a minor player in the division at that time and he was barely on anyone's radar.

Once Canelo beat Kovalev and Gvozdyk beat Stevenson, people wanted to see Beterbiev/Canelo and Beterbiev/Gvozdyk. We did get Beterbiev/Gvozdyk in late 2019. COVID shut down most of boxing in 2020 and early 2021.

Bivol fought Canelo in 2022. It was a fight he wasn't supposed to win because people thought Bivol wasn't that good. It was after Bivol beat Canelo when people wanted to see the Beterbiev/Bivol fight. Bivol was supposed to fight a rematch with Canelo, but it never happened. After that, both fighters had to fight mandatories to keep their belts.

2023 was the best time for these fighters to meet until the WBC stepped in to put a wedge between them.

There was no ducking involved.

 

Bivol’s an idiot.

He had an opportunity to be the King of Boxing after defeating Canelo, instead he chose to smack his wife around and stay underground.

Bivol will get flattened by Beterbiev and deservedly so.

 

Absolute nonsense.

Beterbiev has called out every belt holder since he won his belt. It's taken Bivol 7 years to answer his call.

Bivol has been a title holder since 2017 without once facing the best LHW in the world. Not once.

 

Bivol didn't actually win the belt... he was elevated to full champion after holding the interim belt. Many people didn't considered him to be a legit titleholder at the time, so he wasn't on anyone's radar. He didn't have a big name and was a relative unknown.

 

Bivol wants to face Beterbiev in unification match (2019)
https://www.boxingnews24.com/2019/10/bivol-wants-to-face-beterbiev-in-unification-match/

In 2019, Bivol expressed desire to face Beterbiev. Here's what Beterbiev's promoter said:

“We are looking at the winner of the fight Kovalev – Alvarez, but Alvarez is unlikely to fight with Beterbiev,” said Arum to Tass.ru about Beterbiev’s next fight. “We also know about the desire to fight Bivol. He will have priority, and after [Beterbiev defends the IBF title [against mandatory Meng Fanlong], we can organize such a fight in 2020,” said Arum.

The following year, COVID hit and everything got shut down. Both Bivol & Beterbiev had no fights in 2020. The fight didn't happen because of COVID, not because of ducking.

 

He wasn't unknown, he was quite hyped due to his age and speed especially by 2018.

For 7 years he's called himself a world champion without once challenging the number 1 LHW in the world, until next week. However you cut it, it's ridiculous.

 

Read the post above. Bivol wanted the fight and Arum pushed it back.

 

I have, 7 years.

There's no defending it.

 

Not once in his career actually fighting a Champion from his own Division !