Will AJ Vacate the WBO rather than fight Usyk?

Agreed. I also think Usyk vs Joshua would sell better than any of them. People aren’t stupid, they’d see Ruiz and Whyte fights for what they are this time. There’s hunger for good fights after Covid.

 

No, I can't see AJ vacating.

1. It's still a big fight.

2. He want's that "undisputed" claim and with Fury tied up with Wilder, I think he will face Usyk in the meantime to clear the mandatory requirement.

3. Usyk the former undisputed CW champ is another very good scalp for his resume. Whyte, Wlad, Ruiz, Pulev, Povetkin, Parker & Usyk is a solid list of names. Whilst Fury has the 2 single best wins, you can't argue that AJ has the "deepest" resume and this only enhances it.

 

I hope the fight happens. But team Usyk did annoy me with trying to take 93% of the purse vs Joyce, on the basis of their previous purses. Part of me hopes AJ does the same thing to Usyk. I hope the fight does happen but if AJ or Fury did that to Joyce everyone would be calling it an outright duck.

 

I honestly think both Hearn and AJ are very keen on the Dillian Whyte fight, it's sells but also its decidedly less dangerous than Usyk.

 

Does Hearn understand the concept of mandatory challengers?

He is now constantly complaining about mandatory challengers and their percentages.

I've seen about 4 interviews this week with Hearn and he is complaining about "being told what do" by governining bodies.



This is what you get when you have multiple belts, you have to face mandatories, it's the price you pay.

 

I think Joshua himself would quite happily fight Usyk. I can see why Hearn/Matchroom might be worried though, very awkward fight.

 

I'm happy to see Joshua against anyone decent who isn't an old man.
Hey, I'd even make an 'old man' exception for Luis Ortiz, the last relevant old man he's yet to face ...

I'm not 100% sold on Usyk.
Whyte would be just as worthy an opponent, in my opinion.
Ruiz as well. Even Parker !

 

Here we go... AJ hate in full swing. Isn't even 10am yet, bud!

 

How on earth do you interpret that post as "AJ hate" ?
I can't even begin to grasp your thought process there.

 

Personally my preferences for AJ's next fight would be (barring Fury and Wilder) :

1. Ruiz III
2. Whyte II
3. Usyk
4. Ortiz
5. Parker II
6. Rivas/Joyce

 

You're seeing things you want to see. The general forum is different, but on the British forum people don't generally "hate" fighters. Obviously people have favourites, but it's not nearly as vapid and boring as the general. If you want that sort of debate, I'd take a look on there instead.

 

I'm sensing a hard duck coming with Hearn talking load of rubbish

 

This is what's making me thinking they may swerve it. Every interview hearns had the last few days has been" if we can reach a sensible agreement usyks next, but at some point were gonna get sick of these governing bodies telling us who to fight", or along those lines

 

Got to be usyk...failing that i,d like to see ortiz and if not that then stick chisora in there as a keep busy fight. People will laugh at chisora...but he,d give joshua more problems than a lot of them. Throws punches from everywhere....has succesfully landed on everyone hes fought barring fury years ago and hes fought most of the big names. Chisoras a decent pressure fighter. Hes also hitting pretty hard these days.

The two guys that went forward against joshua in whyte and ruiz...caused him problems. Its the one name eddies stayed away from chisora. High risk low reward. Stick him in...i reckon he gives joshua problems even though theres better fighters than del.

No one wants to see ruiz so soon...or parker again...parker will sit back too much again. Or whyte who had a bad one against povetkin...needs to build back up with another couple of wins.

Really got to be usyk...failing that chisora or ortiz. Wilder was a bad style for ortiz...he could still cause problems for the wrong opponent tho. If you lead off on him he,ll hurt you.

 

All plodding Chisora has is the overhead right which he throws twice per fight and most see it like a big bright red bus when crossing the road.

There is no excuses not to fight Usyk and his name will change to Chicken Doshua on here should he not proceed with that fight.

If he ducks Usyk, then I would prefer a fight with a new challenger such as Joe Joyce.