After a seemingly endless wait and tough negotiations, Michael Eifert will meet Dmitry Bivol on May 30 in Yekaterinburg. BOXSPORT spoke exclusively with the German IBF mandatory challenger.
Hello Michael, the wait is finally over! The IBF mandatory defense against Dmitry Bivol is coming up – on May 30 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. How does that feel for you, is it your sporting highlight?
That feels really good! My dream is coming true. Of course, this is the sporting highlight. This is by far the biggest fight of my career so far. That’s as good as it gets.
More than three years have passed between your fight against Jean Pascal in Canada and the world championship fight against Bivol. Numerous observers have asked themselves why you waited so stubbornly for this one chance, why you didn’t choose other options with your management as a world-class German light heavyweight?
I knew that my big dream was waiting for me at the end of the long wait: a fight for several world championship belts. A fight against a boxing legend. Every boxer’s dream is to fight for the world championship once in their life. And for me, it’s not about one belt, but several – the unified champion status (Bivol holds the IBF, WBO and WBA world championship belts; editor’s note). And for “The Ring” belt. In 100 years of boxing, I’m the second German after Max Schmeling to be allowed to fight for it.
Your only fight in the meantime was against Carlos Jiminez in Magdeburg in August 2024. Was that the performance check you needed – or doesn’t a boxer get ring rust at some point?
I had no other choice. Another fight would have cost me my status as an IBF Mandatory Challenger. Of course you put on ring rust.
Can continuous training replace competition, can dry runs in the sweat room simulate real duels in the rope square?
We have gone to great lengths to make the best of this very difficult situation. We …
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