{"id":343745,"date":"2026-05-31T22:56:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=343745"},"modified":"2026-05-31T22:56:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T17:26:05","slug":"hearn-has-backup-plan-if-dmitry-bivol-goes-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/hearn-has-backup-plan-if-dmitry-bivol-goes-elsewhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearn Has Backup Plan If Dmitry Bivol Goes Elsewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When discussing the situation, Hearn acknowledged Smith\u2019s position because the WBO mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNow he\u2019s been ordered to fight Callum Smith. Persons are talking about Beterbiev 3 or Benavidez, but Callum\u2019s got to get his shot, so we\u2019ll see what happens,\u201d said Hearn to Matchroom Boxing\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll speak to Dmitry, Vadim, and the team. If he does decide to fight Beterbiev again or fight Benavidez, then it\u2019ll be Callum Smith against Buatsi to run it back for the world title, which can be an enormous fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hearn stopped wanting presenting Smith as Bivol\u2019s clear next opponent. As an alternative, he immediately discussed alternative scenarios and openly outlined a fallback plan involving Smith and Joshua Buatsi if Bivol decides to pursue an even bigger fight elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Often, a promoter with a compulsory challenger will bang the drum, demand the fight, and check out to corner the champion. As an alternative, Hearn immediately shifts to, \u2018Well, if he doesn\u2019t want it, we\u2019ll just make this massive domestic fight for a vacant belt.<\/p>\n

It shows zero confidence that Bivol will actually take the Callum Smith fight, and truthfully, why would he? Bivol just got back into the groove against Eifert and needs those massive legacy nights against Benavidez or the Beterbiev trilogy. Hearn likely knows this, so as a substitute of fighting the present, he\u2019s already constructing a bridge for when Bivol inevitably drops the WBO strap.<\/p>\n

Matchroom wins either way. If Smith gets Bivol, great. If Bivol vacates, Hearn gets an enormous, stadium-level UK blockbuster in Smith vs. Buatsi 2 without having to share the pie with outside promoters.<\/p>\n

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Robert Segal is a boxing journalist at Boxing News 24 with greater than a decade of experience covering fight news, previews, and evaluation. Known for his straightforward reporting and ringside perspective, he delivers authoritative coverage of champions, contenders, and emerging talent worldwide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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When discussing the situation, Hearn acknowledged Smith\u2019s position because the WBO mandatory challenger. \u201cNow he\u2019s been ordered to fight Callum Smith. Persons are talking about Beterbiev 3 or Benavidez, but Callum\u2019s got to get his shot, so we\u2019ll see what happens,\u201d said Hearn to Matchroom Boxing\u2019s YouTube channel. \u201cWe\u2019ll speak to Dmitry, Vadim, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":343746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[10330,13750,17031,7748,1239],"class_list":["post-343745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-backup","tag-bivol","tag-dmitry","tag-hearn","tag-plan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343748,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343745\/revisions\/343748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}