Dmitry Bivol returns to the ring in Russia to defend his WBA light heavyweight title against Umar Salamov, with DAZN airing the fights starting at 11:40 am ET.
BLH will be here for live coverage. All live updates including round by round for the main event will come in this stream:
Bivol (18-0, 11 KO) first won a version of the WBA title in 2016, when he beat Felix Valera to claim the interim belt, and has been bumped up the chain over time, standing as the top WBA titlist at 175 lbs since Andre Ward’s retirement in 2017. Salamov (26-1, 19 KO) is getting his first world title shot.
The co-feature is a solid matchup at 154 lbs, with Magomed Kurbanov (22-0, 13 KO) taking on former titleholder Patrick Teixeira (31-2, 22 KO) in a 12-round bout for a regional WBO belt, which could propel the winner into a world title fight at some point in 2022. Junior lightweight contender Shavkat Rakhimov (15-0-1, 12 KO) is also in action, though his fight has been pretty well downgraded with a last second replacement opponent in Sardor Muzaffarov (4-4, 2 KO).
We’re not exactly sure how much of the card will air on DAZN, but we’ll be here for all of it.