Just because you beat the man, doesn’t mean you become the man.

Long-time WBA light heavyweight ruler Dmitry Bivol is discovering just that. After a career best win over Canelo Alvarez (UD 12) last May, he has fought once, easily dominating Gilberto Ramirez (UD 12) in November.

The 32-year-old had hoped that would lead to a rematch with boxing biggest star. However, despite conversations for a mooted September showdown, the fight hasn’t come about and looks further away than ever, leaving Bivol looking for something else meaningful.

“It was only close to happening in the press per Canelo and his team,” Bivol (21-0, 11 knockouts) told The Ring through manager Vadim Kornilov.

“We have been focused on other plans for a while now. Just coordinating that with my team and will have some information soon. I know that we were talking about the fight against [Jaime] Munguia for some time a couple of months ago, but it seemed like they changed their mind later. That was a little bit of a waste of time as we didn’t have other options planned at that time.”

Kornilov feels the talk of his fighter facing Canelo, was just that, to save face after being beaten last year.

Dmitry Bivol lands a left on Canelo Alvarez – Photo by Ed Mulholland/Matchroom

“To be honest, I am not sure what Canelo asked for, we saw in the press that he said that he wanted the rematch on the same terms as the first fight, which obviously would not work,” said Kornilov. “Canelo never wanted the fight, they know that Bivol will be even more confident and there is a good chance that Bivol can stop Canelo this time.”

With the Canelo fight up in smoke with news that the Mexican superstar has signed a three-fight deal with PBC, Kornilov hopes to secure a fight with IBF, WBC and WBA titleholder Artur Beterbiev, which would decide who is the undisputed light heavyweight champion.

“We have been focused on trying to make the [Artur] Beterbiev fight for some time,” revealed Kornilov.

“Now it will be the winner of Beterbiev vs. [Callum] Smith. Now we have to wait until after the Beterbiev vs. Smith fight to talk further on this. I am very confident that Dmitriy will be a unified world champion in the near future.”

However, Kornilov believes that the mouth-watering proposition may not happen due to the WBC’s stance on Russian fighters, leaving Bivol without a viable dance partner for their projected return sometime in September or October.

“Matchroom and the rest of our promotional team were very close in negotiating the Bivol vs. Beterbiev fight in the Middle East,” explained Kornilov. “But I am hearing in the press that Beterbiev’s promoter is talking about wanting [David] Benavidez and Canelo for Beterbiev and they are against the Bivol Fight.

“This just proves further that the Beterbiev side never wanted the fight either, just like Canelo, they are looking at any other possible options and trying to avoid Bivol. Inarguably, Dmitry is one of the most skillful boxers in the world today, who has maybe lost 5-10 rounds in all of his 21 fights as a pro.

“Who would want to fight him unless they have to?”

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected].

Follow @AnsonWainwright