Notebook: Bivol signs for proposed showdown against Beterbiev

Referee Kenny Bayless retires; Andy Cruz sues promoter in money dispute; Pacquiao exhibition; Quick hits; Show and tell

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WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol has done his part by signing a contract with the Saudi Arabian organizers to fight three-belt champion Artur Beterbiev in his next fight, sources with knowledge of the signing told Fight Freaks Unite.

Bivol, the consensus 2022 fighter of the year, ended a 13-month layoff on Dec. 23 when he dropped Lyndon Arthur in the 11th round en route to a 120-107 shutout decision on all three scorecards in his 11th defense on the “Day of Reckoning” DAZN PPV card at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Bivol has long sought to face Beterbiev for the undisputed 175-pound title and had agreed to do the fight in Saudi Arabia but he has now signed the paperwork, although when the bout would take place was not specified other than it being “next,” one of the sources said.

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Beterbiev, the lineal champion, who also holds the WBC, IBF and WBO titles, must still do his part. He must retain his belts against WBC mandatory challenger and former super middleweight champion Callum Smith (29-1, 21 KOs), 33, of England, on Jan. 13 (ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN+) at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada — near Russia native Beterbiev’s home base in Montreal — and then come to terms with the Saudis

Beterbiev making a deal with the Saudis seems likely if he comes through the Smith fight. Not only would it be, by far, the most lucrative fight of Beterbiev’s career, but Bob Arum and Todd duBoef of Top Rank, Beterbiev’s promoter, met with His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, who oversees the Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority, when they were in Riyadh for the Tyson Fury-Francis Ngannou fight on Oct. 28 and discussed the fight in a positive manner. The GEA is the government office that funds the major sports and entertainment events that take place in Saudi Arabia.

The night before Fury-Ngannou, Bivol and Beterbiev were among the dozens of champions, former champions and Hall of Famers at the official gala dinner that Alalshikh hosted and they came face to face and briefly discussed a possible fight, which was caught on video. Both have long said they wanted to fight each other and now, apparently, the funding of the bout is not an issue with the Saudis involved.

Beterbiev (19-0, 19 KOs), 38, who has made seven defenses, knocked out Oleksandr Gvozdyk in the 10th round in 2019 to win the lineal title and also unify the IBF and WBC belts. In 2022, he knocked out Joe Smith Jr. to add the WBO title to his collection.

Beterbiev is on record many times professing his desire to unify against Bivol, including after his last fight, when he knocked out Anthony Yarde in the eighth round of a mandatory defense in January.

“I want Bivol. Right now, it’s everything,” Beterbiev said. “In that fight, we’ll have four belts. It’s really good fight, I think.”

In the days before defeating Arthur, Bivol (22-0, 11 KOs), of Russia, who turned 33 on Dec. 18, reiterated his desire to fight Beterbiev.

“It’s a big goal and when we signed the contract we discussed not only fighting against Lyndon Arthur, we discussed about another fight too for four belts,” Bivol said. “We discussed undisputed. (The Saudis) want to make this fight and they can make this fight. This is really good for me. It's what I need.”

And he said it again after outclassing Arthur.

“Now I see my way to my goal to undisputed against he winner of Beterbiev-Smith,” Bivol said. “I hope this fight will happen in 2024; next fight.”

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In our latest podcast we discussed Naoya Inoue’s historic KO of Marlon Tapales to become undisputed junior featherweight champion and his selection as fighter of the year. We also went over news of the week, looked ahead to 2024 and more! Give it a listen, a review, and subscribe for an alert when the next episode drops. New show every Thursday and Sunday.

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Referee Bayless retires

Kenny Bayless, who for many years was widely considered boxing’s best referee, announced his retirement in a Facebook post on Thursday.

Bayless, 73, served as the third man in the ring for numerous mega fights, including the biggest money fight in history, the long-awaited showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao in 2015.

“I’m happy to announce that I am retiring as a referee for the state of Nevada,” Bayless wrote in his post. “After more than 4 decades in the ring — 32 as a professional referee and another decade in the amateurs — I’m satisfied with my contribution to the sport of boxing and grateful for my accomplishments. Over the years I maintained good health so I plan to stay involved in the sport, maybe as a supervisor with one of the 4 major boxing organizations or even as a judge. You might even see me in the ring for an international exhibition or celebrity match. I’m open to whatever comes my direction. I have a couple of opportunities in the works at the moment.

“I want to thank God for watching over me and the fighters for these many years. I want to also thank my wife, my family and friends for their continued support, and all my boxing fans.”

Bayless, who would famously end his pre-fight instructions to the boxers at center ring by saying, “What I say, you must obey,” estimated that he worked more than 160 world title bouts, mainly in Las Vegas, not to mention many hundreds of nontitle fights. Boxrec lists him as having officiated 850 total pro bouts.

The first really big fight he worked was the middleweight championship bout between Bernard Hopkins and Oscar De La Hoya, which was the first-ever four-belt unification fight, in 2004.

Here are just some of the many other big-time bouts he refereed: De La Hoya-Mayweather, Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez, Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin I, Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder II, Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton, Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez II and IV, Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley Jr. II, Pacquiao-Erik Morales II, Marco Antonio Barrera-Morales III, Cotto-Antonio Margarito I and Roy Jones Jr.-Antonio Tarver I.

Andy Cruz sues promoter

Lightweight Andy Cruz, a star amateur on the fast track, is embroiled in a lawsuit with one of his promoters just two bouts into his professional career.

Cruz (2-0, 1 KO), 28, a 2020 Cuban Olympic gold medalist and three-time world amateur champion, who defected and now fights out of Miami, filed suit on Dec. 22 in U.S. District court for the Northern District of California, against New Champions Promotions and Jesse Rodriguez, who runs the company, alleging financial impropriety.

The suit was also brought against co-promoter Matchroom Boxing but only as a technicality because it is a partner in his promotional agreement. The suit does not allege wrongdoing by Matchroom Boxing.

In the 17-page, eight-count complaint, a copy of which was obtained by Fight Freaks Unite, Cruz, through attorney Gregory Smith, accused NCP and Rodriguez of taking bonus and purse money they were not entitled to.

“Despite having only participated in two professional boxing matches, Cruz is acknowledged as one of the best boxers in the world at his division,” the suit states. “Tragically, Cruz’s promoter, New Champions Promotions and its principal, Jesse Rodriguez, have abused Cruz’s trust by taking his money, which is both a breach of their contract and a violation of the law.”

According to the lawsuit, Cruz signed with NCP in November 2022 and in May 2023, NCP, without having put on a fight for Cruz, brought him to Matchroom Boxing. Under that deal, Matchroom was due to pay him a signing bonus and set purses for his first four fights with the purses then subject to negotiations above a minimum.

The suit said that Matchroom is believed to have paid NCP a fee for influencing Cruz to sign with the company and that the deal did not require Cruz to pay NCP any portion of the money he received from Matchroom, but that his payments from Matchroom had to be paid to NCP, which was then supposed to distribute the money to him.

The suit said that between May and December 2023, Matchroom was in compliance with the promotional deal and paid NCP approximately $500,000 in bonus and purse money but that NCP “wrongfully withheld more than $100,000 of the money that NCP was paid by Matchroom. Despite having no contractual basic to do so, NCP claimed that it was entitled to keep 25% of the funds it received from Matchroom.”

The suit also accuses NCP of acting as a manager rather than a promoter, which would be a violation of the federal Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act. That law requires a firewall between a manager, which has a fiduciary responsibility to the boxer, and a promoter, which does not.

Cruz turned pro in July and defeated three-time world title challenger Juan Carlos Burgos via lopsided 10-roun decision. Cruz then knocked out Jovanni Straffon in the third round on Dec. 9 on the Devin Haney-Regis Prograis undercard. On Friday, Matchroom Boxing announced Cruz’s next bout would be against Mexican southpaw Brayan Zamarripa (14-2, 5 KOs), 26, on the Edgar Berlanga-Padraig McCrory card on Feb. 24 (DAZN) in Orlando, Florida.

BetUS Boxing Show

If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and picked a pair of fights, junior middleweight up-and-comer Vito Mielnicki Jr. against veteran Salim Larbi on Friday night in Newark, New Jersey, and WBA junior bantamweight titlist Kazuto Ioka defending against Josber Perez on Sunday (New Year’s Eve) in Tokyo. We also took viewer questions and comments and discussed the latest boxing news! Please check out the show here:

Quick hits

In July, Manny Pacquiao, 45, the retired legendary eight-division champion from the Philippines, and retired Muay Thai and kickboxing star Buakaw Banchamek, 41, announced a news conference in Thailand that they would meet in a six-round junior middleweight boxing exhibition bout (with two-minute breaks between rounds) in early 2024. Now there is a date and site: April 20 at Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand. It will be Pacquiao’s second exhibition since retiring after a loss to Yordenis Ugas in a welterweight title fight in August 2021, although he has talked about coming out of retirement. Pacquiao has twice previously boxed in Thailand, winning his first world title (at flyweight) there in 1998 and losing it there in 1999.

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RCC Boxing announced it will stage the IBF junior lightweight title eliminator between its fighter, former titlist Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov (17-1-1, 14 KOs), 29, and Eduardo Nunez (25-1, 25 KOs), 26, of Mexico, on Feb. 17 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The fight will be the first for Rakhimov in his home country after boxing primarily in Russia. RCC gained promotional rights with a bid of $305,000 to beat an offer of $179,111 from Nunez promoter Matchroom Boxing at a purse bid with the split 60-40 in Rakhimov’s favor ($183,000 to $122,000). The winner will become the mandatory for Joe Cordina (17-0, 9 KOs). Cordina was stripped of the title due to a hand injury that kept him from making a due mandatory defense against Rakhimov, who then stopped Zelfa Barrett for the vacant belt in November 2022. He lost it to Cordina by split decision in a blazing fight in April. The fight will be Nunez’s first outside Mexico.

Show and tell

The WBC held its 61st annual convention in November in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where 1,137 people affiliated with the sanctioning body from 102 countries gathered. Among those on hand were legends such as Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Roberto Duran and Julio Cesar Chavez, all former WBC champions. One of the events that was part of the convention schedule was a boxing card headlined by 2020 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist and Uzbek national hero Bakhodir Jalolov, who knocked out Chris Thompson in the first round, and also included Carlos Cuadras outpointing fellow former titleholder Pedro Guevara to win the vacant WBC interim junior bantamweight title.

Tyson’s appearance at the card was advertised on one of the posters made for the event, and I now have one of them in my collection. I also have one featuring Jalolov. I have more than 5,000 boxing posters, many of which are from countries other than the United States, but as far as I can tell, these are my first from Uzbekistan. Here is the one with Tyson and, really — if you collect boxing posters can you ever have too many Tyson posters?

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Photos: Beterbiev-Bivol: Screen shot; Bayless: Kenny Bayless Facebook; Cruz: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing; Pacquiao-Banchamek: Banchamek Facebook

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