Boxing: Lack of payment causes Bivol more pain than Canelo fight

It’s been almost two weeks since Dmitry Bivol beat the favored Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to defend his WBA light heavyweight title and he still hasn’t collected the purse he was assured of.

Bivol told the Russian agency Tass that he has not collected any of the $5 million he was guaranteed for the fight against Canelo, at the time considered the best fighter in the world and leader in the pound-for-pound rankings.

Dmitry Bivol’s words

“I don’t get paid, I think it’s very difficult to get paid,” Bivol confirmed in the interview, in addition to ensuring that it is very complicated to release that money, the same that he has not been able to collect because of the sanctions imposed on Russia since that country decided to invade Ukraine.

“We are thinking about how to solve it in order to have it”, added Dmitry, who won by unanimous decision against Canelo in the May 7 fight, defending the 175 lbs. title even though he was not the favorite to win it.

The frustrations of Dmitry Bivol

Thus, this situation is giving him more headaches than the fight with Canelo itself, something that Bivol had already warned his manager Vadim Kornilov.

“I had never faced this challenge because it hadn’t come yet. We are still thinking about how to do it. We hadn’t thought about the future because the situation is changing rapidly, I didn’t even think about it and told my manager: ‘Vadim, come on, this will be your headache’.”

Bivol defended his title and there is talk of a possible rematch with Canelo, although the Russian wants the titles in the semi-complete division, but does not rule out facing the Mexican again.