Dmitry Bivol To Defend Interim WBA Title In November; Promoter Threatening To Stop The Fight

Well that didn't take long for Dmitry Bivol to find a new opponent.

Just days after Badou Jack, who was ordered to fight Bivol by the WBA, vacated his WBA "regular" light heavyweight title, Bivol, the WBA's interim champion, will now fight Australian Trent Broadhurst. That fight will headline a Matchroom Boxing card on November 4 from Monaco and that fight will be broadcast live on HBO, which would be Bivol's first fight with the network.

Bivol will likely be elevated from his interim status as he is the only active fighter holding a WBA light heavyweight title. Andre Ward, the WBA's "super" champion, recently announced his retirement.

But not all are happy with the fight being announced. ESPN recently acquired a copy of an email promoter Lou DiBella's attorney Alex Dombroff wrote to Hearn, Vadim Kornilov, Bivol's manager, and Peter Nelson, HBO Sports' executive vice president, and Broadhurst's manager Peter Khan. In that email, DiBella's team accused Khan of making deal behind his back as DiBella had been interested in Broadhurst and threatened legal action to prevent the fight from happening.

A part of the email can be read below.

DiBella Entertainment, Inc. had a promotional interest in Mr. Broadhurst and only recently relinquished that interest due to the multiple bad faith acts and representations on the part of Mr. Broadhurst's manager, Peter Kahn. This letter shall serve as notice that, in the event Matchroom chooses to proceed with the Bivol-Broadhurst bout, DBE shall pursue all remedies available, including seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the bout from moving forward. DBE will also be pursuing all available remedies against Mr. Kahn.

DBE only revoked its interest in the contract following prolonged silence by Mr. Kahn. DBE now understands Mr. Kahn was actually negotiating directly with promoters on behalf of Mr. Broadhurst — a complete dereliction of Mr. Kahn's obligation of good faith and fair dealing and a subversion of DBE's rights.

Any representation Mr. Kahn made that Mr. Broadhurst was not bound to a promotional contract was false and intended to further subvert DBE's rights. Although Mr. Kahn does not respect agreements between parties, I expect that Matchroom does. To avoid the involvement of the courts, DBE is demanding that Mr. Broadhurst either be pulled from the event or that Matchroom negotiate directly with DBE for Mr. Broadhurst's involvement on the show.

The November 4 card from Monaco is another strong Matchroom Boxing card with WBA bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell defending his title against Liborio Solis and Scott Quigg fighting Oleg Yefimovich in a WBA featherweight title eliminator. 

Also on that card is Dereck Chisora fighting for the European heavyweight title as part of Chisora's recent announcement that he would be signing with Matchroom Boxing.