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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.
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.