Oleksandr Usyk’s May 23rd clash with Rico Verhoeven may have its first undercard fight, as Dan Rafael and Jake Donovan report that Dmitry Bivol and Michael Eifert have finally come to terms for their IBF-mandated light heavyweight title fight and intend to stage it that evening.
Thus ends one of the dumber under-the-radar sagas in boxing. Eifert (13-1, 5 KO) has been the mandatory challenger for nearly three years, dating back to a March 2023 decision over Jean Pascal. He repeatedly stepped aside
to allow Bivol’s (24-1, 12 KO) saga with Artur Beterbiev to play out, then had to wait further for Bivol to recover from back surgery.
The pair should have been sent to purse bids after the initial failure to come to terms, but they requested and were granted no fewer than five week-long extensions, just barely sneaking under the wire ahead of one planned for tomorrow.
That odyssey figures to be a more interesting story than the matchup itself; Eifert has done very little in his career to suggest that he’s anywhere near Bivol’s level. If the former undisputed champion’s vertebrae are all still pointed in the same direction, he should win without too much issue and hopefully get the division moving again.
