Dmitry Bivol believes unification fight with Artur Beterbiev would be ‘more difficult’ than his clash with Canelo

Dmitry Bivol believes there is a harder fight out there for him than a rematch with Canelo and it comes in the form of a clash with Artur Beterbiev.

Earlier this year in May, Bivol pulled off a huge upset to beat Canelo and defend his WBA light heavyweight world title.

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Prior to the fight, Canelo seemed to be an unstoppable force, as a four-weight world champion and having just torn through the super middleweight division to become undisputed champion at 168 lbs.

Despite Canelo's air of invincibility, the unbeaten Bivol remained composed throughout their contest and boxed his way to an unanimous decision victory.

Bivol is currently the WBA world champion at 175lbs with all three of the other belts in the division held by Beterbiev, so the obvious fight to make is an undisputed clash between the two Russians.

If the pair do fight, Bivol believes it will be an even tougher challenge than his bout with Canelo, he told Boxing Scene: "It will be difficult but not much more. Just different type of difficult.

"The fight against Canelo was difficult because no one believed in me except my team.

"Beterbiev is not as popular as Canelo so maybe that will be easier.

"But about boxing skills, about sizes, I think it will be more difficult."

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Canelo had the opportunity to exercise an immediate rematch clause with Bivol but opted instead to take on Gennady Golovkin in a trilogy fight.

As for Bivol, he has an upcoming contest with former super middleweight world champion, Gilberto Ramirez and so his manager, Vadim Kornilov, believes he is no longer tied into a rematch with Canelo.

"We are not really trapped into the rematch clause anymore," Kornilov said, "this is the fight now [against Ramirez] and the rematch will be negotiated, both guys went and took out a fight.

"Then we have to work together and figure out the next fight."

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Bivol himself also seems more interested in moving on to fight for the light-heavyweight undisputed crown than taking another fight with Canelo.

"To be honest, I want to fight for the other belts," Bivol revealed. "But if [Canelo] wants to fight against me again then we can negotiate about it and if everything is okay for me for next fight, why not.

"But I am focused on Ramirez now. It is a really good opponent for me and I have to beat him to create plans after the fight."