[BOXING]Dmitry Bivol vs Callum Smith

[acroman08]

The WBO has ordered Dmitry Bivol to defend his title against the former  The WBO gave them 20 days to negotiate and come to an agreement, both of them share the same promoter(at least as far as I know), so they might come to an agreement fairly quickly.

I wonder if this will be a difficult fight for Dmitry Bivol, I mean, the guy hasn't fought anyone for more than a year, and in that year, he had back surgery in August 2025 to repair a herniated disc(nasty injury, talking from personal experience), just had elbow surgery this July 4, and now he is fighting Callum Smith, a former Middleweight World Champion.

https://www.boxing247.com/boxing-news/wbo-orders-dmitry-bivol-vs-callum-smith-with-20-day-deadline-to-avoid-purse-bid/307848

Edit:
So, I was rereading everything(because of bisdak's post), and I provided wrong information about Dmitry's last fight, apparently, his last fight was this year, in May against Michael Eifert. That being said, he still did have a back surgery and an elbow surgery this July 4th. Anyway, learning that he fought this year and won even after his back surgery almost a year ago, I guess his performance didn't deteriorate because of his back injury.

[aioc]

I wonder if this will be a difficult fight for Dmitry Bivol, I mean, the guy hasn't fought anyone for more than a year, and in that year, he had back surgery in August 2025 to repair a herniated disc(nasty injury, talking from personal experience), just had elbow surgery this July 4, and now he is fighting Callum Smith, a former Middleweight World Champion.

This is a very interesting scenario, but Bivol has doctors and physicians, and they will not let him go to full training and agreed to fight Callum, who is still a dangerous and capable challenger to any champion.
I expect Bivol to be in perfect health going into this fight, so I'll go with Bivol to win; this is good preparation for a possible Benavidez match, who is fresh from beating Ramirez, or a possible third match against Beterbiev. Whatever, Bivol is still a capable champion, and hopefully we'll see him fight Benavidez or Beterbiev.

[LogitechMouse]

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This is a very interesting scenario, but Bivol has doctors and physicians, and they will not let him go to full training and agreed to fight Callum, who is still a dangerous and capable challenger to any champion.
I expect Bivol to be in perfect health going into this fight, so I'll go with Bivol to win; this is good preparation for a possible Benavidez match, who is fresh from beating Ramirez, or a possible third match against Beterbiev. Whatever, Bivol is still a capable champion, and hopefully we'll see him fight Benavidez or Beterbiev.

I expect Bivol to win, but with his past surgery, and how he fought in his last fight, I believe that he's still not in 100%. Like what you said though, he has professional doctors in his team, and if they say that he can't then vacating the title is the best option for him.

I did some research, and it says there that Bivol has FULLY recovered already on his surgery, so maybe we could expect him to fight in this match. Now is the time for Bivol to say to the other fighters that he's back and he's ready from any fighters that will try and get those 3 belts from him. Like what you said, there's also a chance that Benavidez could come down again and fight him after this fight probably at the end of the year or next year. Who knows. As for a trilogy between him and Beterbiev, I'm thinking if Beterbiev can still fight because it's more than a year since his last fight.

Anyway, this will be an interesting fight. A former champion vs. a current champion.

[Oasisman]

This match could easily favor Bivol, IF he's medically cleared. I mean, he's far better than Callum Smith in almost all categories. However, the long rest and injury could be a factor here. Smith, to be fair, fought bigger opponents, bigger than Bivol. Once he sees weakness, that might be his chance to take down his opponent.
I'm not sure if Bivol already has his full training back, as most of the article says he fully recovered from the surgery, but we all know once there's an injury, there will always be some rust to shake off, especially after the surgery. Let's see if that will hinder his full capability.

[Dave1]

It's about ring rust here, if Bivol can shake it off early, then I think he could beat Callum Smith. But if not, then he will have to dig deeper on his arsenal in order to beat Smith. But barring everything, I think Bivol can still win this fight.

For sure he won't go and make a comeback if he is not 100%. So it's good to finally see him back in the ring again as him and David Benavidez fight is what the fans might want to see in the future. So let's hope that he wins this fight and then set up next year against the Mexican monster.

[bisdak40]

It's about ring rust here, if Bivol can shake it off early, then I think he could beat Callum Smith. But if not, then he will have to dig deeper on his arsenal in order to beat Smith. But barring everything, I think Bivol can still win this fight.

For sure he won't go and make a comeback if he is not 100%. So it's good to finally see him back in the ring again as him and David Benavidez fight is what the fans might want to see in the future. So let's hope that he wins this fight and then set up next year against the Mexican monster.

I think Callum Smith is the rusty fighter coming into this fight as he last fought on February of 2025, more than a year of lay-off while Bivol has defeated Michael Eifert only last May so we can say that Bivol is the more active fighter of the two. But like you i believed that this will be a fight where Bivol will win as he is a more discipline boxer than Callum Smith. I hate to compare or shall we say triangle theory by on the two losses of Smith, he was defeated by Arthur Beterbiev and Canelo Alvarez which Bivol also fought and defeated the two, that alone is a clear indication that Bivol has the edge over Smith.

[TopTort777]

There were recently talks that Smith should have a fight against Buatsi again, but all of a sudden they decided to use mandatory challenger rule. There is something shady in this story. Smith has been on the bench for 1.5 years. Why all of a sudden WBO started to talk about mandatory fight? Because they have smelled chance to take belts from Bivol due to surgery and recovery? I would instead watch trilogy with Beterbiev or Benavidez.

[acroman08]

There were recently talks that Smith should have a fight against Buatsi again, but all of a sudden they decided to use mandatory challenger rule. There is something shady in this story. Smith has been on the bench for 1.5 years. Why all of a sudden WBO started to talk about mandatory fight? Because they have smelled chance to take belts from Bivol due to surgery and recovery? I would instead watch trilogy with Beterbiev or Benavidez.

This article says that Dmitry Bivol contacted the WBO and said that he wanted to fight Callum Smith next. The article also said that there were reports about Dmitry Bivol facing Artur Beterbiev in a trilogy fight, but he decided to face Callum Smith instead.