Russia's Bivol ready to fight Canelo, prays for his country to stop fighting in Ukraine
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Like millions around the world, light heavyweight world titlist Dmitry Bivol has been paying attention to the heartbreaking scenes coming from Ukraine, which neighboring Russia invaded to begin an unprovoked war last week.
The only fighting Bivol, who lives in Saint Petersburg, Russia, wants to see unfold is inside the boxing ring and he prays for the bloodshed in Ukraine to end.
He is due to defend his WBA 175-pound world title against pound-for-pound king and undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on May 7 (DAZN PPV) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as Alvarez moves back up to light heavyweight seeking a second title in the division.
They met face to face on Wednesday at the kickoff news conference at a hotel in downtown San Diego, not far from Alvarez’s training camp, and the formal proceedings were brief and low key with the usual promises of a good fight as both men showed high respect for one another.
But it was when Bivol met with a handful of reporters backstage that the subject of the war was broached.
“I have a lot of friends in Ukraine,” said Bivol, who spoke in English with the occasional assist in translation from manager Vadim Kornilov. “I have a lot of friends in Russia. My family is in Russia. I have a lot of friends everywhere. I wish them only peace and only the best.”
Bivol was born in Kyrgyzstan a year before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and moved with his parents to Russia when he was 11. He made the point that he is not a politician and unsure of the reason why Russia started the war, but he wants it to end.
“My wife and kids are there (in Saint Petersburg),” said Bivol, who is training in the United States for the biggest fight and payday of his career. “My friends and family are waking up every morning and they’re talking to everybody all over the world and they’re praying and everyone is in a state of nervousness. No one’s accepting what is going on. They’re not thinking of politics, they’re thinking about what we are seeing. This is not something anybody enjoys and I hope that this is over (soon).
“I’ve always been out of politics. War is closer to politics, I’m not a politician, I’m not a professional to understand it completely but now it’s kind of hard to ignore it.”
“It’s really sad for me.” — Dmitry Bivol on the Ukraine-Russia war
The 31-year-old Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs), who will be making his ninth title defense, figured the questions about Russia and Ukraine would be coming and he was prepared for them.
“It’s always important to be more talkative about things you are an expert in,” Bivol said. “For example, I’m not a doctor. I don’t understand viruses, so I would not be able to speak about Covid and the situation here is related to politics. It’s not something I completely understand, so it’s hard for me to say much, but if we’re talking about sports I’m willing to say a lot because I’m a professional (athlete).”
The war has caused various entities in the sports world to ostracize Russian athletes. FIFA banned Russia from soccer’s World Cup. The International Olympic Committee wants federations for all sports to bar Russian athletes from competing.
In boxing, three of the four major sanctioning bodies — the WBC, IBF and WBO — announced that they will not sanction world or regional title fights involving boxers from Russia or Belarus. The WBA has only said it will not sanction title bouts in Russia or Belarus. It will sanction the fight between Bivol and Mexico’s Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs), 31, as it will take place in the United States, although Bivol will not be permitted to enter the ring with a Russian flag, won’t be introduced as being from Russia and the country’s anthem will not be played.
Bivol’s view is that sports and politics should be separated, although they have long been intertwined and he does not think that Russian athletes should be punished for something they have nothing to do with.
“Sports and politics have been historically separated and I believe it should stay that way,” Bivol said. “In my opinion I don’t think this is related in any way. This is a competition. It’s a sports competition between two fighters and I think it’s important to respect that and I don’t think it’s related to the other things that are happening right now in any way. I think a lot of people will support that.
“As a kid growing up, I always wanted to be an athlete. I wanted to be successful. That has been my goal. If people are not specifically taking any type of negative action or not taking any type of steps to affect the political situation, they should not be punished because they are not related to that. They are in the sports game. They are not related to politics.”
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who co-promotes Bivol and has signed Alvarez to a two-fight deal, said everyone involved in the fight is sensitive to what is happening in Ukraine, where boxers such as heavyweight titlist Oleksandr Usyk and lightweight star Vasiliy Lomachenko have taken up arms to defend their country and retired former heavyweight champions Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko are also prepared to fight.
“I’ve known Dmitry Bivol for a long time. He’s a fine young man,” Hearn said. “We’re not avoiding the question (about the war), but we also understand this is boxing and we look forward to a fantastic fight on May 7.”
Bivol is indeed looking for a good fight with Alvarez. As for the fighting in Ukraine, he wants peace.
“It’s really sad for me,” Bivol said. “Every day I wake up and read the news. I hope (the war) stops.”
Photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
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Perish the thought that the WBA have taken this decision specifically to accommodate Canelo.
Bivol has carried the Russian flag into the ring over all of his career despite the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Putin supplying arms and money to Russian speaking separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine - and so his sudden talk of wanting peace cuts no ice with me and pretending that he shouldn't talk about politics because he doesn't know much about it is a complete cop out.
In any other situation I would probably support those who say that Bivol should be free to continue his career and earn money from boxing and not be banned because of some political issue however in this case I can't agree.
This is mainly because Ukrainian boxers like Loma, Usyk and Postol can no longer continue their careers because of the actions of Bivol's president - who Bivol doesn't have the balls to criticise.
Usyk and Loma may never be able to box again, even if they're not killed they could very easily be too badly injured to continue their careers. Would it be okay for boxers living in Russia to continue like nothing has happened under such circumstances? Not in my opinion.
It's naive to pretend that sport and politics are completely separate and when it comes to the current invasion of a democratic country like Ukraine by an autocratic superpower like Russia then expecting the world to allow Russia dwelling sports people not to be affected while Ukrainian sports people can no longer compete because of the Russian invasion of their country, is rather unrealistic.
In this respect the WBA isn't only out of step with the other sanctioning bodies they're out of step with the rest of the sporting world.