When Dmitry Bivol was growing up in Russia with aspirations of becoming a professional boxer, among his biggest dreams was to headline on HBO one day. That would mean he had made the big time.
He finally gets a chance to fulfill that goal Saturday night, when he defends his WBA light-heavyweight title against former champion Jean Pascal at the Hard Rock Hotel in Atlantic City.
“When I was young, I saw many fights on HBO: Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and all the top fighters,” Bivol told The Post. “Of course, when I saw these fights, I wanted on be on the network. I wanted to fight on HBO. It meant you were one of the top boxers.”
It’s a bittersweet occasion. After 45 years, HBO is ending its involvement in live boxing beginning in 2019. HBO will televise a Boxing After Dark triple-header, featuring Celia Braekhus, Claressa Shields and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez on Dec. 8, but this will be the last in the World Championship Boxing series that began with George Foreman knocking out Joe Frazier for the heavyweight title in Jamaica in 1973.
“It’s a big honor to be in the last [World Championship] boxing event in the history of HBO,” Bivol said. “It’s an honor to take that responsibility. We had other choices, but we wanted to stay with HBO and be loyal to them.”
As HBO bows out, Bivol’s career is heating up. This will be the third defense of his title after earning a unanimous decision over Isaac Chilemba last August at the Hard Rock. The 27-year-old from Saint Petersburg, Russia, is 14-0 and will be looking for his 12th knockout when he faces the Canadian Pascal (33-5-1, 20 KOs), who held the WBC belt in 2009.
“I think this is going to be an action-packed fight because Pascal comes to fight and is very aggressive,” Bivol said. “It’s an honor to fight a big name like Pascal. He’s a champion and he’s very experienced.”
Bivol seemed destined for a match with Sergey Kovalev, who had regained the WBO belt after losing twice to Andre Ward. But Kovalev headlined the card last August at the Hard Rock and was dethroned by Eleider Alvarez, who stopped him in the seventh round. An all-Russian matchup of Bivol vs. Kovalev is now on hold.
“I was disappointed [Kovalev] lost because although we don’t know each other well, we come from the same country,” Bivol said. “We have common friends. It’s disappointing when people you know get punched like that and lose the fight.”
A unification bout with either Alvarez or WBC champion Adonis Stevenson could be on the horizon in 2019 if Bivol continues to win and raise his profile. But those fights won’t be on HBO, which leaves the boxing business to focus more on original programming.
Bivol will likely have some leverage to negotiate a new broadcast deal if he can beat Pascal. Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions could be a potential landing spot as Stevenson and Alvarez are aligned with the company.
“Our team has already gotten some offers from another platform, and after the fight, we’ll think about what direction we want to take,” Bivol said.
