The light heavyweight division appears wide open.
Adonis Stevenson is the world champion, but he is 40 years old and has spent his entire four-year title reign feasting on lesser opposition in the comfy confines of Quebec.
Andre Ward owned the three other world titles and was viewed by many as the pound-for-pound king, but he vacated the belts and retired in September.
Former titleholder Sergey Kovalev is 34 and coming off back-to-back losses to Ward, including by knockout in June.
If there is one fighter out there who could become the new face of the division in a post-Ward world it's Dmitry Bivol, a former amateur standout who was born in Kyrgyzstan and grew up in Russia.
Bivol is 26, has a crowd-pleasing style to go with his considerable skills and he speaks English, which will help him connect with American fans. He trains with Gennadii Mashyanov in Los Angeles and is now based in the United States, where he has had his past two bouts. He is also willing to face anybody, and now also has a world title after being elevated from an interim titleholder in the wake of Ward's retirement and Badou Jack vacating his secondary belt just weeks after winning it instead of pursuing a mandatory defense against Bivol.
Now Bivol (11-0, 9 KOs) is set to make his HBO debut in his first title defense against Australia's Trent Broadhurst (20-1, 12 KOs) on Saturday inside the Salle Médecin at the Casino de Monte-Carlo in Monte Carlo, Monaco, on HBO "Boxing After Dark" (5:45 p.m. ET/PT).
Bivol may not be well known yet, and Broadhurst may be as obscure as they come, but HBO is on board and hoping it's the first fight in a long and fruitful relationship with him. As for Bivol, he believes he can become the new face of the 175-pound division.
"Yes, definitely, we think that," Bivol said. "Now being a WBA world champion I think this definitely stands for me being part of the game in the light heavyweight division. There's a lot going on, but my goal right now is to perform well on TV and give everybody the show that they want to see. I see a lot of opportunities that I can undertake in the division in the near future."
Bivol won an interim belt in his seventh fight by outpointing Felix Valera in May 2016 in Moscow. He made two defenses and also had two nontitle bouts before being elevated.
He was first seen by the American public on Showtime's "ShoBox: The New Generation" series in April, when he blasted out Samuel Clarkson in the fourth round of a one-sided interim title defense. Two months later he smacked around Cedric Agnew in a fourth-round knockout of a nontitle fight on the undercard of Ward-Kovalev II.
His reputation has grown among boxing insiders and HBO is excited about his potential star power, the reason the network is sending its crew to Monte Carlo to be ringside for a one-fight telecast between Bivol and the entirely unknown Broadhurst, 29, who will be fighting outside of Australia for the first time and facing the first remotely notable opponent of his career.
Bivol's main objective besides winning is to leave the viewing public wanting to see more of him.
"I want the fans to know that since I was a child boxing is my life. I want the fans to know I am always trying to do my best. I am doing my best in the ring. I don't like to speak bad about my opponents. I just want my fans to like my boxing style and appreciate my work. I am trying to do everything for the fans." Dmitry Bivol
"My goal for people that are going to see for the first time is that they see and enjoy the beauty of boxing," he said. "I will show them boxing at its highest level and make people believe. Once they see the fight, I want people to believe the fact that this guy can be a future star."
If Bivol wins on Saturday and contender Sullivan Barrera defeats Valera on Nov. 25 in an HBO-televised bout on Kovalev's next undercard, they could meet because Barrera is Bivol's mandatory challenger. That's a fight Bivol and his team are interested in. Bivol would prefer to concentrate on Broadhurst, but did offer, "I know the WBA said the winner of the fight on [Saturday] will be making a mandatory defense [after that]. Yes, I'm ready. I will be ready if I will be the winner."
Vadim Kornilov, Bivol's manager, said the fight with Barrera is of interest to them. Barrera is promoted by Main Events, which Bivol is working with when it comes to his American fights, so it would be a relatively easy match to make and one HBO is interested in.
"Of course, we were interested in the Barrera fight and Barrera is going to be the mandatory for Bivol after this fight and after Barrera's fight," Kornilov said. "If that's going to happen, then that's definitely something we're interested in doing next."
Kornilov said they would have liked to be facing Barrera on Saturday but Barrera was not going to be ready in time. Before that Bivol wanted to fight Jack, but he vacated and declined the bout because he said his promoter, Mayweather Promotions, has bigger plans for him.
"We were not aware that Badou Jack was not going to take the fight. We kind of thought he might not, but then that wasn't a fact," Kornilov said. "I think Dmitry is definitely a world champion. He's one of the top guys in the division. This fight is going to take him a step closer to proving that. And we're hoping that we can unify next year against any of the guys that are in the division."
It has not been easy to get opponents willing to face Bivol and is not getting any easier, Kornilov said.
"After Dmitry performed on 'ShoBox' against Clarkson and on HBO pay-per-view against Agnew, people saw what he did to those opponents," Kornilov said. "It's already difficult to get Dmitry an opponent. It's already difficult to get people to fight him, it's been that way. We don't want to run ahead of ourselves. We've got a big event on [Saturday], a big fight and a serious opponent. Dmitry has to take care of business first, but I think that if Dmitry keeps on fighting the way he's been fighting and performing in that manner, I think that people are going to get more and more excited and I think that the fights that need to happen will happen. It will not be easy, but I think we'll be able to make it happen with the team that we have right now."
Bivol, the married father of two sons, ages three and eight months, began boxing at age six after watching Mike Tyson fight. But Bivol's favorite boxer is the legend Sugar Ray Leonard.
"I love to watch fights with Sugar Ray Leonard before my fights. I learn from his fights," Bivol said. "I also like to watch Gennady Golovkin, Vasyl Lomachenko, Terence Crawford and Manny Pacquaio, but my favorite is Sugar Ray Leonard."
Bivol said it has been hard for him to be based in Southern California while his family remains in Russia.
"It is hard to know how fast your babies are growing and you can't be there to see it," he said. "Every day I call to them and sometimes my older son calls to me when I am asleep because of the time difference."
But Bivol said the sacrifices he is making are worth it for his goal of boxing stardom. He is right on the brink.
"I want the fans to know that since I was a child boxing is my life. I want the fans to know I am always trying to do my best," he said. "I am doing my best in the ring. I don't like to speak bad about my opponents. I just want my fans to like my boxing style and appreciate my work. I am trying to do everything for the fans."