Dmitry Bivol’s First Title Defense Coming?

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By Joshua “City” Brewer

Standout WBO world light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, 13-0, 11 KO’s, seems to surely be headed towards making his first title defense on August 4, 2018. It was reported at the tail end of last month that this fight was in the works to be the co-feature on the Sergey Kovalav Vs Eleider Alvarez fight which will take place in Atlantic City, NJ. Bivol confirmed on twitter earlier today that he’ll be taking on veteran Malawi boxer Isaac Chilemba, 25-5-2, 10 KO’s. Bivol state “On August 4th I will have a very important fight against Isaac Chilemba. He’s an experience fighter with good stamina, awkward. Often his is able to dictates (sic) the pace of the fight. Of course, you have to prepare for this kind of opponent certain way. You have to give everything (sic).”

Chilemba is a rugged veteran who’s proven to be pretty durable during his career. He’s 2-3 in his last five fights dating back to March, 2015. He picked up a win over Blake Caparello in March, 2018, after more than a year off after suffering an RTD defeat at the hands of undefeated Ukrainian light heavyweight stud, Oleksandr Gvozdyk in November, 2016. Chilemba was basically battered into submission during that fight. Bivol is rightfully considered to be the ‘next big thing’ at light heavyweight so Chilemba may be in line for a similar result.

Bivol is coming off of the best win of his young career with a 12th round stoppage of battle tested Cuban Sullivan Barrera in March of this year. In this fight he proved that the hype was most certainly real. While Chilemba could be viewed as a step down for Bivol at this point in his career, nonetheless, it’s a solid first defense on paper. Not too many people are eager to step in with Bivol. Given the strategic placement of this fight, it’s likely that should Bivol be victorious he could possibly face the winner of Kovalev Vs Alvarez in what would be a unification fight. Their clash seems all but inevitable at this point. That’s why they fight the fights. I know everyone will be watching and waiting.

Stay tuned…

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