Dmitry Bivol has made a move in boxing that shows the final death sentence is now at hand for the old boxing title organizations.
This all really started not long after Terence Crawford defeated Canelo Alvarez last year in a major fight at super-middleweight.
Afterwards he told the old four world title belt companies where to go and retired at the time as pound for pound number one in boxing.
Many more followed, Usyk gave up one of his heavyweight titles due to one of those sanctioning bodies not providing interesting fights for him.
Ironically, he ended up taking easy fights however after that and nearly lost them recently to a kickboxing world champion.
Now light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol is looking at giving up his WBO belt to pursue a trilogy with Artur Beterbiev or a big fight with David Benavidez.
This is the final nail in the coffin for the four old organizations now the WBO, WBC, WBA and IBF as spectators of the sport wish to just see the best fights now.
Titles don’t matter.
Some things to note on this:
- Dmitry Bivol vacated WBC light heavyweight title in April 2025 to pursue Beterbiev trilogy
- Oleksandr Usyk vacated WBO heavyweight title in November 2025
- Jaron “Boots” Ennis vacated IBF welterweight title in July 2025 while moving up
- Richardson Hitchins vacated IBF super lightweight title in April 2026
- Claressa Shields vacated WBO light heavyweight title in early 2025
- Shakur Stevenson stripped of WBC lightweight title in February 2026 after moving up; publicly ripped sanctioning bodies as crooks over fees and rules
- Terence Crawford stripped of WBC super middleweight title over unpaid sanctioning fees in late 2025
Here’s what’s happening at the moment:
- Boxers increasingly prioritize high-level matchups against elite opponents over retaining multiple titles
- Top fighters are willing to vacate belts to avoid mandatory defenses that limit desirable bouts
- Spectator demand focuses exclusively on the best available fighters facing each other
- Sanctioning fees create financial disincentives for pursuing the most competitive fights
- Elite light heavyweights seek unification-level or super fights rather than belt retention
- The sport’s appeal (and has done hugely recently) grows when quality super bouts happen without mandatory obligations
- Fighters recognize that true championship status comes from beating top competition (pound for pound is more important than ever)
- Consumer interest diminishes in bouts dictated by organizational requirements
- Leading contenders move toward dream matchups that showcase the highest skill levels
- Professional boxing moves forward toward a model where competitive merit trumps belt collections
The above are all now live and will not change. We’ve seen this time and time again in recent boxing news in 2026.
The only thing now that the sport is interested in is the best fights.
As mentioned, pound for pound boxing rankings are more important than ever.
Who knows what fights Bivol will be in but this is shows the death nail in the coffin of the old sanctioning bodies.
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