By Steve Kim

This Saturday from Monte Carlo, WBA light heavyweight titlist, Dmitry Bivol, defends his crown versus Trent Broadhouse in a bout that will be televised in America during the afternoon by HBO. Bivol - who was the WBA interim titlist - became the full-blown WBA champion when Badou Jack decided to vacate this title.

Should Bivol get past Broadhouse a fight versus Jack still holds great interest to them.

Vadim Kornilov tells BoxingScene.com - "I think it can be possible, we were interested before and we would be interested in the fight, again. There's been some mention of (Sullivan) Barrera as an option but right now he's ready to fight any other guy in the division. We'll see how this fight plays out and see where it takes us."

Jack had reportedly been seeking a showdown with WBC belt-holder, Adonis Stevenson, to no avail. At that point, Bivol was in line to be the mandatory for Jack.

"For some reason I thought he was going to vacate the title," said Kornilov of Jack. "I know they were talking to Stevenson, I don't know if that fell through later or before but at the end of the day that fight could've happened. We wanted it to happen. So if Jack is interested we would definitely entertain that possibility."

2017 has been a productive one for Bivol who has scored 4th round knockouts of Samuel Clarkson and Cedric Agnew in his last two bouts in the States and now has piqued the interest of HBO, which is clearly making an investment into the 26-year old. 2018 figures to be a big one for Bivol (11-0/9 KO's).

"He's a world champion now and we'll be looking for unification next year. I know there's a lot of titles up for grabs at this time," noted Kornilov, referencing the recent retirement of Andre Ward."By the end of this year a lot of the champions are going to align in this division and I think that things will progress quickly.

"So we'll be back in the beginning of he year in the United States and anything is possible after that because Dmitry's ready to unify the belts."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.