Dmitrii Yuriyevich Bivol vs. Joshua Buatsi

All but official (stay tuned) for June 3rd in Dubai.

WBA light heavyweight Super world title at stake, 4th defense of Bivol (tenth overall defense in a contiguous reign beginning with the WBA "regular" world title in 2017 - and thirteenth if you expand that reign another 18 months to include his time with the org's Interim belt, which predates Buatsi's professional debut by more than a year).

Both the Moldovan-Korean-Kyrgyz-Khazak-Russian (now based in the United States) and the Ghanaian-born naturalized UK citizen are unbeaten to date in the paid ranks. Bivol was last defeated in 2012 by Stefan Härtel, almost 2½ years before concluding his amateur career (his last three defeats, including against Oleksandr Gvozdyk were by "Walkover", meaning Bivol forfeited the matches - likely due to injuries - and never even set foot in the ring to compete). Buatsi was vanquished in his last ever amateur outing - but, it should be noted, at the hands of touted Kazakh southpaw and twice-over silver medalist at both the AIBA world chips and the Olympics (meaning 4 silvers total) Adilbek Sabitovich Niyazymbetov, so no great shame there.

The champ has a significant edge in experience - just five more pro matches but more than double the rounds boxed overall - and most observers would argue skill by a few clear levels. The challenger is 3 years his junior and brings a two inch advantage in height and 2½ in reach along with a much higher KO %.

 

Every able bodied subject of the Queen born male and weighing 12.5 stone must rally to prevent this cataclysmist event, what ho!

 

It does seem like Fast Car is blowing the chance to protect Buatsi'a zero a bit longer while he continues to develop into the very good fighter he could end up being. Short term gains being prioritized, I guess - perhaps worrying that if Bivol loses to Beterbiev down the line it'll be an even less favorable title proposition for Buatsi.

 

and spoiler: Buatsi ain't English!

 

He is a UK citizen, as stated in my OP. He isn't of English ancestry, was my tongue-in-cheek point, there.

DB is every bit as Russian as JB is British, as their families emigrated to either country respectively when they were kids.

 

Alright, honest show of hands now - how many of you forgot (or never realized) that Bivol's nickname is the Beast, and has been since before it was Beterbiev's?

Now raise your other hand if you think Buatsi's nickname is, aside from mapping to his initials, objectively awful.