The Deal Nobody Could Make
Right then — Bivol vs Callum Smith is going to purse bids. The WBO gave both camps a 20-day negotiation window, granted extensions on top, and still nobody could land on numbers everyone would sign. So on Thursday, August 27, at the WBO's offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the promoters will put their money on the table in public — the whole thing streamed live on the WBO's own platforms — and the highest bid takes the fight.
Let's not beat around the bush about what a purse bid usually means: it means the champion's side does not fancy the fight at the price on offer. Dmitry Bivol has options, and defending against a mandatory challenger as dangerous and as unglamorous as Callum Smith is the option with the worst risk-to-reward ratio on his list.
Smith Has Earned His Shot
None of this is Smith's fault, mind. The Liverpudlian won the WBO interim title by beating Joshua Buatsi over twelve hard rounds in February 2025, and he has sat patiently as the sanctioning body worked through order after order. At 31-2 with 22 knockouts, Smith remains a proper handful for anyone at 175 — a big, long, heavy-handed super middleweight who grew into the weight above. He has been in with the very best and never once looked out of place.
The Beterbiev Question Hanging Over Everything
Here is the wrinkle. Eddie Hearn has said openly that Bivol may prefer to vacate the belt rather than take this defence, because the fight Bivol actually wants is the trilogy with Artur Beterbiev. They are one apiece — Beterbiev took the undisputed crown in their first meeting, Bivol boxed brilliantly to win it back in the rematch — and a decider is one of the purest fights that can be made in boxing. Every belt Bivol gives up makes that fight easier to stage and richer for both men.
If Bivol walks, Hearn's view is that Smith would face Buatsi for the vacant title — a rematch of that February 2025 battle, this time with a full world championship on the line. An all-British fight for a world title at 175 sells itself, and Buatsi has rebuilt nicely since that defeat.
My Prediction
I will call it straight: I do not think Bivol vs Smith ever happens. The purse bid goes ahead on Thursday, the numbers come in, and within a few weeks Bivol vacates to chase Beterbiev with both hands free. Smith vs Buatsi II for the vacant WBO title lands in the UK before the end of the year — and this time I take Smith by stoppage late, because he is levels above at championship distance. Make no mistake, though: the fight all of us actually want is Beterbiev vs Bivol III, and it feels closer today than it has all year.