We are now less than a month out from the highly anticipated rematch between the sport’s two top light heavyweights and two of its top pound for pound fighters period in Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev. The rematch is scheduled to take place on June 17th and it will be broadcast on HBO PPV. With the addition of one of best prospects in the division in Dimitri Bivol, the televised undercard for the event is now set.
Blue chip Russian light heavyweight prospect Dimitri Bivol returns to fight in the US for the second time in a row and third time total. Most recently he destroyed Samuel Clarkson in four rounds as the main event of an April Shobox card in Maryland. Here is is taking a lateral fight against former Kovalev challenger Cedric Agnew. Agnew is 4-1 since being stopped by the Russian destroyer, but the one loss was a narrow eight round split decision loss to Samuel Clarkson. Yes, the same Samuel Clarkson that Bivol beat last time out. In that sense it is a somewhat strange move, but it is hard to complain about a prospect fighting solid midlevel pros like Clarkson and Agnew in only his tenth and eleventh pro fights.
Barring an upset here, it is expected that at some point soon Bivol will be ordered by the WBA to fight England’s Nathan Cleverly. They both hold minor versions of Ward’s full WBA title and the winner would be in line to fight the Ward/Kovalev II winner or be upgraded to full champion should the winner retire or vacate instead.
The full PPV card is as follows:
June 17th, HBO PPV
Andre Ward (31-0, 15 KOs) v Sergeyi Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) – WBA, IBF, & WBO light heavyweight
Guillermo Rigondeaux (17-0, 11 KOs) v Moises Flores (25-0, 17 KOs) – WBA super bantamweight
Luis Arias (17-0, 8 KOs) v Arif Magomedov (18-1, 11 KOs) – Middleweights
Dimiti Bivol (10-0, 8 KOs) v Cedric Agnew (29-2, 15 KOs) – Light heavyweights
