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Light heavyweight world titlist Dmitry Bivol, unable to land a major fight in the talent-rich 175-pound division, stayed busy with an expected romp over Lenin Castillo on Saturday night at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago. Fighting in the co-feature of former undisputed cruiserweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk's heavyweight debut against Chazz Witherspoon, Bivol knocked Castillo down in the sixth round and had no problems as he cruised to a near-shutout unanimous decision in a slow-paced fight. He won by scores of 120-107, 119-108 and 119-108 to retain his world title for the seventh time. “Maybe there are people who say, 'You are a boring fighter,' or something like this. But I try to win and I won,“ Bivol said. “Who wants to fight me? Who wants to try to beat me?“ Bivol (17-0, 11 KOs), 28, of Russia, took control from the outset, using his jab and quick combinations to keep the slower Castillo at bay. He stayed steady with his jab, which he also worked well to Castillo's midsection. Castillo (20-3-1, 15 KOs), 31, a 2008 Olympian from the Dominican Republic, could not get much going on offense. He was sporadic with his punches and spent long stretches following Bivol around. Bivol broke through in the sixth round when he countered a lazy Castillo jab with a clean right hand on the chin that dropped Castillo to his rear end midway through the round. Castillo, who had never previously been knocked down as a pro, did not appear badly hurt and acknowledged Bivol with a nod as if to say “good shot.“ “I saw his fights before. He is really good at counterattacking. All five rounds before that, I tried to land that punch,“ Bivol said. Even after the knockdown, Castillo, who came into the fight having won two fights in a row since a 10-round decision loss to top contender Marcus Browne in August 2018, had no sense of urgency. He looked only to counter rather than go on the offensive, while Bivol continued to jab him to the head and body. It was a steady, if unspectacular performance. Bivol, a broadcast free agent, hopes to land a unification bout next year and plans to attend the light heavyweight title bouts coming up, including Friday's unification fight between Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Artur Beterbiev in Philadelphia, then the Nov. 2 showdown between titlist Sergey Kovalev and middleweight world champion Canelo Alvarez. “I want to make my mark in boxing history and to do this you have to fight the best,“ Bivol said. “Of course, I want to fight against the other champions but sometimes you cannot do it because they are busy, but we have had good fights and I am happy with that. The fight next weekend is a great one and I would love to face the winner between Gvozdyk and Beterbiev. We will know more about my future after that fight. I don't know who wins that fight.“ Bivol would also like to face the Kovalev-Alvarez winner. “Of course, the Kovalev fight could happen because we are in the same division. I don't know what is going to happen in his fight with Canelo, but I am ready to fight anyone at light heavyweight,“ Bivol said. “Canelo? Of course! It's a good fight for me. I'm taller than him. I have good boxing skills and enough experience to box a guy like him. He's one of the best guys from middleweight. He's not a heavyweight. If he was it would be difficult to talk about but he's coming from two divisions below so why not? I can also make 168 pounds. I have talked about this many times because I am not a big guy, so I could make super middleweight for a big fight.“
