MCGUIGAN Don’t take lethal Bivol too lightly

THE light heavyweight division is packed with stellar talent. Arguably the best of them, Dmitry Bivol, hunts his 16th straight win against Joe Smith Jnr tonight.

I met Smith Jnr at a convention in the States last year. He’s a fine fella and a decent fighter, but he is going up against the genuine article in Bivol (above, right).

Stuck behind Russia’s established light-heavyweight medal machine in the amateurs, Egor Mekhontsev, Bivol never got to box at the Olympics.

And Bivol’s great Russian contemporary at light heavy, Artur Beterbiev, was forced to box at heavyweight in London to get a pick and fell at the quarters.

Bivol, 28, twice won titles at the world juniors and gold at the 2013 World Combat games but there was no getting past Mekhontsev, who between 2008 and 2012 cleaned up at the Europeans, Worlds and the London Olympics.

Mekhontsev (below) is unbeaten in

14 as a pro, but at 34 and after a long amateur career his prospects in the paid ranks are not as favourable as Bivol’s. Born in Kyrgyzstan, Bivol started boxing at six and, after moving to Russia at 11, prospered in arguably the world’s most competitive amateur environment.

He can punch as well as box, has fantastic spatial awareness, great timing and in common with many of the great champions from the former Soviet states has a lethal mentality.

Unlike Beterbiev, an out-and-out puncher, Bivol does his best work at mid-to-long distance, working off a rapier jab and setting up a brutal finish.

Having cleaned out Trent Broadhurst in a round to claim the WBA title in 2017, he wore down then stopped the tough Cuban Sullivan Barrera in his first defence to underline his readiness to fill the space left by Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev.

Bivol and his ilk have raised the bar, all of them profiting from a system that essentially churns out professional amateurs. In the past they did not have the opportunity to turn west.

Mekhontsev’s experience as a career amateur was common.

Not now. Attracted by the riches available to them in the US, these boys are on their bikes heading for the bright lights of New York, Las Vegas and every casino reservation in between.

This is what the great British Olympian Joshua Buatsi is up against as a pro, hungry, world-class amateurs hardened by years of elite combat. And he must give all he has and more to match them.