Would be really very disappointing if they vacate the belt and avoid this fight. Not a good look at all
Huge shame if we don’t get to see this. I think Usyk worries Hearn and Joshua’s team. I have no doubt Joshua would take the fight - but it would be seen as hugely high risk low reward with a Fury fight on the line.
Low reward ? why ? Fighting Undisputed boxer is better, than avoiding him, which is a coward move. There is nobody available, that is bigger reward for him than Usyk
I for one am looking forward to seeing the mental gymnastics performed by Eddie Hearns loyal fans if they do vacate the belt. I have no doubt they'll blame Usyk for being greedy and not agreeing to fight Joshua for £5 and a can of coke.
It amuses me when people insinuate Joshua is scared of Usyk when he was about to face Fury, which most people would agree is a far greater threat. Do you all seriously think that Usyk is better than Fury now? Usyk has done neither jack nor **** to worry anyone in this division. But no doubt the Usyk fans will be creaming themselves if the fight doesn't go ahead, believe their favourite fighter scared Joshua away.
Usyk has no right to complain about this sort of thing with how he decided to disrespect Joyce demanding 93% of the purse bid and telling Joyce to "mind his place". Usyk isn't worth more than 20-25% of the cut.
Its looking like this will work out well for Joyce as he may be fighting Usyk soon for the WBO and triple what they would have earned previously. Usyk has a strong negotiating position. He doesn't have to accept Eddie's table scraps.
Well it's up to him really. If he's satisfied with becoming champion for beating Witherspoon, Chisora and Joyce then good luck to him, because no one is going to be impressed with that. The only way he's going to get a lot of respect for winning the belt is if he does it against an opponent of great value. Beating AJ will get him a lot of respect and make it so his belt is actually worth something. Beating Joyce will not. At the end of the day it may get to the point where the boxing community stops caring about the belts entirely. It's like people not respecting Wilder being champ for beating Chisora level fighters to get his belt. No one respected it. No one cared. Usyk has no right to complain about a disrespectful offer after he disrespected Joyce before with his ridiculous remands. If he wants respect he should give it.
Serious people don’t believe the fighters are ‘scared’. Promotions will try to avoid tricky fights though.
Where did I or have I ever said AJ is "scared" of Usyk? Because I haven't have I? This is about a rematch clause, well the lack of one, that's all. I went through this a couple of weeks ago and got exactly the same comments as yours... I'll say it again, Hearn and AJ want a rematch clause, Usyk being mandatory doesn't have to agree to one and doesn't want one, simply because it would only be one way. Let's say AJ gets an absolute outrageous gift on the cards, a Matchroom special, Usyk isn't getting a rematch any time soon. AJ and Hearn will move on and say "we will revisit that down the line, we want to make undisputed for the fans" and nobody will give a toss. So signing a rematch clause is pointless for Usyk but certainly not for AJ and Hearn. Hearn doesn't want AJ to risk losing his belts because let's say Usyk beats AJ, he can walk away with the belts and go and fight the winner of Fury Vs Wilder for all the jewels and AJ is out of the picture. AJ and Hearn learnt their lesson with Ruiz Jr, anything can happen. Does Hearn want to risk losing everything on a one off fight? Or should they just drop the single belt and circle back around to it at some point? It could get very messy. This is why Hearn is crying and whining about governing bodies because he can't control this, mandatory challengers have some leverage, Hearn can't risk a purse bid situation because if they lose it then it looks even worse and what are they going to do? Let AJ fight on another platform? No chance, they'll have to pull out late and they'll get slaughtered. But I will say this.. if AJ vacates and goes and fights a Whyte it Ortiz then it is a duck, no champion can vacate for a fight like one of those two without it being called a duck. The reasons for the duck can be disputed but if waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck... it's a duck.
You do know AJ beat Charles Martin to win a world title right? Charles Martin.. One of the worst Heavyweight world champions of all time. It what Usyk does after beating a Joe Joyce or somebody else that's important..
"Oleksandr Usyk is waiting to discover if Anthony Joshua "is brave enough" to agree a fight for the world heavyweight championship. The deadline of May 31, delivered by the WBO who ordered Joshua to face his mandatory challenger, has elapsed - the champion's promoter Eddie Hearn has said: "We'll either make a deal or we'll vacate" the belt. We are waiting for King AJ's decision whether he is brave enough to get dethroned," Usyk's promoter Alexander Krassyuk told Sky Sports". https://www.skysports.com/boxing/ne...cision-to-agree-world-heavyweight-title-fight Duck incoming , AJ fans what are your thoughts on this ?
Right... so we're in agreement that if Usyk becomes a champion for beating Joyce it means jack until further fights take place, same as AJ's title fight vs Martin meant jack until he beat worthy opponents after. The difference is AJ has the excuse that he was a young fighter in his mid 20's when that happened, where as Usyk is 34. New to heavyweight, sure, but still well in or past his prime.
