Light heavyweight world titlist Dmitry Bivol now has an opponent for his Aug. 4 defense: longtime contender Isaac Chilemba.
Main Events announced on Wednesday that the fight, long rumored, was official and will take place as the co-feature on the "World Championship Boxing" card (HBO, 10 p.m. ET/PT) headlined by another light heavyweight world title fight between titlist Sergey Kovalev (32-2-1, 28 KOs) and Eleider "Storm" Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs) at the Mark G. Etess Arena at the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which opens on June 28.
"I am glad that my next opponent will be a tough and well-known boxer in Chilemba," Bivol said. "I will do my best to put on another exciting performance for all my fans."
Bivol (13-0, 11 KOs), 27, of Russia, will be making his third title defense against another solid contender. Bivol knocked out Sullivan Barrera in the 12th round on March 3 on Kovalev's previous undercard.
"It's never easy to find opponents willing to face Bivol, and it was no different for this fight," manager Vadim Kornilov said.
"We had to go through many different opponents and finally were in a tough position trying to find an opponent that would fight Bivol," Kornilov said. "Happily, Chilemba is a good opponent who has proven to be tough in his previous fights. I'm looking forward to another great event."
Chilemba (25-5-2, 10 KOs), 31, a native of Malawi fighting out of South Africa, is as battle-tested as they come. He is coming off a unanimous decision win over former title challenger Blake Caparello on March 16 in Australia.
Chilemba, a pro since 2005, lost his only previous world title bout, a unanimous decision to Kovalev in his home country of Russia in July 2016. Although he got knocked down in the seventh round, Chilemba gave Kovalev one of his tougher fights. Chilemba also lost a disputed majority decision to Alvarez in a 2015 world title elimination bout.
Trained by former longtime pound-for-pound king Roy Jones Jr., Chilemba sat out all of 2017 recovering from an arm injury suffered in an eight-round knockout loss to Oleksandr Gvozdyk. He is thrilled to get another title opportunity.
"2017 was a bad year for me, recovering from [arm] surgery and thinking that my career was over, but I'm a fighter," Chilemba said. "I couldn't give up and I won't give up. I'm going to take this opportunity and give it everything I have."
Said Jones: "So happy to have this fight for Isaac. It's a great opportunity at a great time. I look forward to a great night for Isaac."
Kovalev and Bivol have seemingly been on a collision course for the past year, and wins by both of them on Aug. 4 could move them close to a fight against each other.