Bob Arum Explains Why He Won’t Pursue Beterbiev-Bivol Unification Fight

Bob Arum won’t be trying to make Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol.

With the Russian and Ukrainian war still ongoing, the WBC has said Russians can’t fight for their belts. Although Beterbiev is Russian, he is also a Canadian citizen which allows him to fight for the belt. With that, Arum says he will be respecting that rule.

“Yes, the WBC has made its views known,” Arum said on the 3 Knockdown Rule (h/t BoxingScene). “I am very sympathetic to the WBC’s views. I 100% support Ukraine and its fight against aggression. So I am not going to push a Bivol-Beterbiev fight. “And then you might say, isn’t Beterbiev Russian? And the answer is no, not really, because he has had a residential visa in Canada for 14 years, so I look at him as being Canadian. And he’s [from] Chechnya, and the reason Chechnya is still part of Russia is because Putin bombed the crap out of them and had them succumb to his overwhelming military force. So again, I don’t want to do anything that supports Russia in any way. So I applaud Mauricio for the position that he’s taken.”

Although Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev would be a massive fight and one Bob Arum says he wants to see, he says he can’t out of principle make the fight. But, the hope is the conflict can get settled and in the future the fight can take place.

“Yeah, I love the fight,” Arum said. “I just, I’m not gonna do it against a principle that a lot of us hold dear. I mean there’s nothing wrong with Bivol. He seems like a nice fellow. And Vadim Kornilov, who is his manager, is a terrific guy. But it is what it is.”

Artur Beterbiev is 19-0 as a pro and set to face Callum Smith on August 19 in Quebec City, Canada.

Who do you think would win, Artur Beterbiev or Callum Smith?