Ruiz will be wise to take the IBF route as Hgrovic is a winnable fight for him,Wilder will brutally KO Ruiz and that fights an eliminator anyway and not even a title fight so no point even fighting Wilder if the IBF belt is an option .
making faces is very convincing. they both should have forfeited their purse and been suspended for a year for that 'fight".
Apparently E-Spence hasn't fought an IBF mandatory challenger in just under 4.5 years but the IBF are forcing Usyk to defend against Hrgovic when they know he's got the undisputed fight against Fury coming up in Feb or March. How can you not have been stripped if you haven't fought a mandatory challenger in 4.5 years? Assuming that info is correct that is
That's crazy and even more so because I believe Ocampo was ranked #3 and the only reason he was mandatory is because the #1 and #2 spots were vacant
How many Mandatory challengers has Usyk faced in his career? He was Undisputed at cruiserweight, and now holds three belts at heavyweight. Will Hrgovic really be his first?
Usyk unified all the belts at CW pretty quickly and he was obviously part of the WBSS tournament. He only held the IBF CW strap for a short while and he's held the IBF HW one for 14 months and he was contractually bound to a rematch with AJ. E-Spence hasn't made a mandatory defence of his IBF strap for just under 4.5 years. The IBF know Usyk has the undisputed fight against Fury on deck for Feb or March and I'm not sure why they couldn't have waited a few months to enforce their mandatory and issued the winner of Usyk vs Fury with an ultimatum to defend against Hrgovic next or be stripped.
I take it that is a no then? Similar to many on here, I have enjoyed Usyk's rise, but personally, this doesn't sit right with me at all. Usyk waited for his mandatory shot at Glownacki to win the WBO, not accepting to fight for the interim (fair enough - I support that move). He again waited for his mandatory shot at Joshua to win the WBO, WBA, IBF, again not accepting to fight for the interim against Joyce (again fair enough - again I support that move). But now his side is talking about not fighting his first ever mandatory challenger, Hrgovic. Sorry, but that is some bull**** right there.
Usyk will not fight Hrgovic as well as Fury for the reason that neither Usyk nor Fury want to suffer the first defeat in their careers, while on the other hand Hrgovic is not a profitable enough match but still brings a certain risk...
Hardly constitutes a duck, given that he passed it over to box Haye, a much bigger and more proven name than Pulev at that time. Fury can't be blamed for choosing that fight, nor for Haye pulling out of two dates and ultimately killing the bout.
Fury is once again talking about 4th fight against Wilder in April.... Wondering what his fans has to say if this truly happen??? Will it be Usyk's or Aj's fault once again???