WBO orders Usyk vs Parker

There was nothing wrong with Dubois 2, none. You'd have to be a butthurt hater to believe otherwise. Unification always takes priority, always. If you didn't like Dubois holding the belt, you can blame Hrgovic and Joshua for losing to him.

In one sentence, you state you have issues with the idea of Chisora 2 and Fury/AJ 3, which are fair. But It's just that, ideas. He just fought 15 days ago so of course the ideas are floating around. In the very next sentence, you claim he's holding up the division. How the **** is he holding up the division with an idea, with something he hasn't even done yet?

You Parker supporters need to get a grip.

 

He knocked Dubios out. Why was a rematch needed? As for the belt argument, he dropped it.

And it's not just "ideas". They were the first three fights he mentioned instead of his next mandatory.

Defend your belts or drop them.

 

Right now Parker would school Itauma. Let’s give the kid time to develop and revisit this sort of talk in 3 years.

 

He dropped it because he had a contractual obligation to fight someone else. Then regaining the belt was of course the priority. It doesn't matter if he KOd Dubois in 1 in the first fight, doesn't matter if he KOd him with his jab or his dick. He was forced to vacate the belt, Dubouis won the vacant belt by beating Hrgovic and Joshua, so they unified as they should.

It is indeed just ideas. Mentioning your future possible opponents in a post fight interview is the very definition of talking about your ideas. Like I said, he just won a unification 15 days ago. Get a grip, have some patience and stop having hissy fits over a post fight interview.

 

If it was anyone else they'd be getting absolutely roasted about it too. Again, it isn't "ideas" it's words straight out of Usyks mouth. Kinda like when Fury tried the whole "who's Usyk?" to avoid fighting him and taking easier fights instead. It wasn't acceptable then, it's not acceptable now.

People love to claim that Usyk has nothing to prove, done everything in boxing. With this being true, what was the justification for beating Dubios again?

But then you say he "has to fight Dubios for the belt" while being happy if he drops the WBO to avoid a mandatory when he has no other commitments. Make it make sense man.

And before you try it, this isn't only because it's Parker. I'd be having the same stance if this was any other fighter. If you wanna watch the same fights over and over again use the rewind button.

 

He's got a get past Whyte first which isn't a guarantee.

 

I am totally fine with every fight Usyk has taken up to now. A fantastic career in CW and HW both.

But if he chooses to drop a belt to avoid the top contender (and rightful mando)

Then it is an "off" decision

And may be seen by many as such.

Why do that??

 

Good post.
But okay, I think we can look at this a little bit. Though, actually, I should apologise this is going to be a long one.
It actually connects to something @Kiwi Casual just posted here.

How Usyk and his team have been moving, I personally believe has been extremely strategic, including the use of rematches.

Fury v Usyk 1 was 2024-05-18, Fury v Usyk 2 was 2024-12-21. If Usyk had the belt "stripped" due to having a contract, that Hrgovic IBF #1 and mandatory challenger would have been offered a change to fight for the title. Dubois would not have qualified by only beating Miller. But Usyk waited...I suspect because he didn't want to fight Hrgovic as there was no money in it for him.
He waited until just before Dubois v Joshua to drop the belt. He wasn't stripped. Which allowed the IBF to install a new champion, both of which as
@Kiwi Casual points out, he had already outclassed them both, they didn't really deserve a shot over the WBO mandatory, but they generate a heck of a lot of money.
I think Usyk's team know that If he had waited until he was stripped by the IBF, it would likely have happened after Dubois v Joshua. And If that happens, maybe the IBF installs Dubois/Joshua as champion, but likely he needs to fight someone else to establish himself as champion (see Glazkov v Martin). And if that happens, Usyk cannot choose Dubois/Joshua over his WBO mandatory, Parker.



Going back to why I think he is choosing all these rematches, I think it has been a strategic way to make the most money possible, rather than be the best champion possible. But that is a matter of taste for me a good champion fights his mandatories and respects the ladder system, for others a good champion fights the biggest names. Boxing versus prize fighting (but maybe that is a little unfair).

Anyway as to why Joshua wouldn't drop the belt, and why Usyk of course was happy to take a rematch for more money.
The landscape heading into the Joshua v Usyk 1 (2021-09) was:

WBC
Fury is WBC champion. The last mandatory defence was 2019-05 Dominic Breazeale. Whyte had been WBC number #1 even before that. They had to deal with it. But the WBC absolutely would allow Undisputed to take place and hold off Whyte for it.
WBO
Joshua is WBO champion. I don't know when the last mandatory defence was, so it probably had been waiting since Joshua v Parker on 2018-08. Whyte had been WBO number #1. But when Usyk declared his intention to be a heavyweight he was installed as the WBO mandatory.
WBA
Joshua is WBA champion. The last mandatory defence was 2018-09 Alexander Povetkin. Unfortunately, there were two claims to the mandatory spot. The regular champion was controlled by Don King. One side of the WBA final eliminator was controlled by Al Hayman.
IBF
Joshua is IBF champion. The last mandatory defence was 2020-12 Kubrat Pulev. So for now, that is dealt with and is at the back of the rotaion. After this, Hrgovic had been trying to schedule a final eliminator for quite some time, but no one on the ladder would fight him. They finally managed to schedule the final eliminator for the undercard of Joshua v Usyk 2. But that comes into play later.

So with it being 3 years+ since a WBO mandatory, Usyk knew he could refuse to fight Joyce. Many fans wanted that fight, because they were started to feel Usyk was queue jumping having only fought Chisora who was viewed as pretty washed at that point. The vast vast majority of fans were angry and wanted to see Joshua v Fury for Undisputed. But Team Usyk were refusing to play nice. The WBO had their hands tied.

But let's roll play it given the situation above. Let's say Joshua drops the belts. Okay, then Joshua v Fury goes ahead but it's not for Undisputed. So then they come back for Usyk with the WBO. Great for Usyk, he gets the pay day and maybe even a bigger one because he holds a piece of the puzzle. Unfortunately... Now the WBA is likely to become a problem. Maybe they can buy off Don King, but Al Haymon if he can rush to match Helenius with say Wilder for the mandatory position, is not going to play ball. So Undisputed is going to get pushed back again.

Team Joshua likely knows this, and their goal has always been Undisputed, they don't want to see the belts fragment again and again. So, Joshua, backed by the risk averse Hearn, offers Usyk a rematch clause. Now Usyk doesn't need to take it. He can beat Joshua and continue toward Undisputed. But why not. He gets another pay day, and what does he care if it potentially holds up the division.

Now what was unexpected in all this, is the media campaign to put pressure on the WBA to get rid of the regular title, and their announcement that they would do this by making the regular belt holder mandatory to the champion. This makes things easier for who would then be the winner of Usyk v Joshua 2 because now Al Haymon loses his way back into Undisputed and Don King not having much power is unlikely to be able force through the mandatory commitment before Undisputed. Don King thus settles on selling the title to Warren who installs Dubois (on the rebuild after the Joyce loss) as WBA regular champion. Now, there should be no problem with making Undisputed between the winner of Usyk v Joshua 2. Warren controls both the WBC champion AND the WBA mandatory.

 

@Cyrion and @Kiwi Casual (this is the last bit I promise!)

Unfortunately for Usyk, Fury doesn't actually want to fight him. Fury wants to continue to milk his stardom and the WBC and lineal title. While he is doing this, he decides to block Usyk with the Dubois mandatory. Unfortunately for Usyk negotiations have been soooo protracted that now Hrgovic the IBF mandatory is pushing for his opportunity.

But that should be okay, he can hold off Hrgovic who definitely won't make Usyk any money, and just settling on fighting Daniel Dubois instead, a guy who went life and death with Kevin Lerena. Unfortunately, for Usyk, Dubois got injured in that fight, so really the WBA should be made to wait and instead the IBF mandatory, Hrgovic should get a shot.

But this is where as I pointed out before, Usyk likes to fight who he wants on his time line. He's much rather fight Dubois who is extremely green rather than an undefeated Olympian. So he refused Hrgovic, and waits for Dubois to recover from injury. He then pushes the fight back some more so he can fight in a "home coming fight".

Okay fine, so too bad for Hrgovic. But Fury still doesn't want to fight Usyk. Now Fury gets himself injured fighting Francis Ngannou. So surely Hrgovic is going to get his opportunity now...
Nope, Usyk is now going to wait for Fury to recover from injury and again refuses his IBF mandatory challenger.

Well maybe given there is a rematch, the winner will get stripped after Fury v Usyk 1 and Hrgovic will get to fight for the title... Well as explained above, we know what Usyk did there.


As I say, maybe this is all a tall tale, but it does seem to fit awfully well. And this is why I will be pleasantly surprised if he fights Parker next.

 

Look, I agree with you that Usyk took the fight that he thought was best for him and his legacy, and I agree it turned out pretty epic. But Parker's fans, and I am one of them, feel he was hard done by. I can apprecaite what Usyk accomplished and still feel it would have been all the better had Dubois given Parker his shot, and we had the (likely) possibility of Usyk fighting two-time titlist Parker.

 

Unfortunately, I think it will take a long time, as it did with Fury fans and the excuses they made.

I feel sorry for you New Zealanders. Unfortunately you aren't a large nation. And for better or worse Parker is in a very similar situation to that which Hrgovic found himself in. He deserves his chance, but has no one who is going to advocate all that strongly behind the scenes for him.

Like, I was never really a fan of Hrgovic (I thought he lost to Zhang, personally), but he was signed with Hearn, and the reason he was fighting Zhang in the first place was because Hearn wasn't willing the pay a large enough purse to get anyone else on the IBF ladder to fight him. Which as you recall was why both Joyce and Parker refused the fight. Then when Hrgovic fought Dubois, we all know he got zero protection from the referee with the number of headbutts put in. But why would that be, Hrgovic was the IBF#1 Dubois wasn't really even ranked, and Hrgovic had Hearn backing him...
Or did he? 3 months later Hearn and Warren are making a stadium fight between Joshua and Dubois for the IBF title. Sorry, the whole game is rigged against guys like Hrgovic and Parker.

Unforunately as well, Parker made some career decisions which have really come back to bite him on the ass. Going back to Joyce v Parker for the WBO interim. You may recall that Parker broke a gentleman's agreement in the 11th hour with Warren and instead signed with Boxxer. Now we need to remember, Warren comes from a generation (and let's say an extended family---without going into too much detail) where your word and a hand shake is as good as contract. And Warren is not the kind of guy who says live and let live. He holds grudges, he has been in court cases with his fighters before, and his kin are not exactly do things by the book, down the straight and narrow.

So now Parker is signed up with Warren. So just like Hrgovic, he doesn't really have someone who is all that keen on going to bat for him. And certainly not, when Warren can potentially make a fight against Usyk for his own guy, Itauma, who is the future, and loyal to him.

Basically, the only person who can make this fight is Usyk. No one around Parker is going to go to bat for him.

So let's just hope Usyk is the champion we are being told he is

 

Excellent posts @Finkel

Very detailed analysis, and I think you're right. Usyk will seemingly get a pass from most people until it's too late. I really hope we do see him fight Parker and Kabayel, but we will see.

 

Who the hell is getting roasted for having a unification against a highest ranked available opponent? Who? We all hate belts being all over the place, so who the hell is getting roasted for unifying the belts? You're pulling imaginary scenarios out of yor ass to justify your hatred.

Words out of someone's mouth, until they are taken into action, are by all accounts, by every definition of the word, are ideas. You even said so yourself, then backtracked later on realizing it didn't fit your agenda.

If Usyk gets an exemption from WBO to deny Parker his title shot only to fight a guy with 0-0-0 record, then It would be comparable to what Fury did. You're hating on someone for something they haven't even done yet.

Usyk indeed has nothing whatsoever to prove. But if he wants to continue his career, he can. And whether some butthurt haters like it or not, unification always take priority.

I never said I'd be happy with him dropping the WBO belt. He has nothing to prove, but if he wants to continue his career, of course Parker should be the next opponent.

You're now putting words in my mouth. All I've been saying is to have patience and stop hating on someone for something they haven't done yet, this is like the 5th time I'm typing this. You're refusing to hear because you're way too emotionally invested to fully comprehend with what you read.

 

I'd prefer if Usyk became undisptuted for the 3rd time against Parker too, posted about it several times before. But Dubois/Parker falling through is not Usyk's fault.

Also, while Parker definetly deserves a title shot now, and It sucked that he was denied the shot against Dubois, he's been getting good opportunuties for almost a decade now. Including a shot at a vacant belt as a prospect, being involved in a unification in a big showdown against AJ, headlining cards and big events. And even though he underperformed in most of them like Whyte, Chisora 1, Fa, Joyce(though that was more of a bad style match up, I though Parker performed well in that one), he kept on getting big opportunities until he finally delivered against Wilder.

There are fighters who had it tough, who are hard done by, but Parker ain't one of them.

 

This might be edging into the realm of conspiracy theory, but I reckon Usyk is seemingly reluctant to fight Parker because he hasn't prepared for him anywhere near as much as he has for his other heavyweight opponents.

I've said it here before, but I'll restate, Usyk spent over a year watching and preparing for Chisora, he spent years for Fury and Joshua. Joshua since at least the 2012 Olympics and Fury since at least the Klitscko win.

Dubois he spent less time preparing for, but Dubois is a much more straightforward fighter and he has said that he was working on a way to KO Dubois (Ivan punch) at least 6 months before the fight was even announced.

I think the extent that Usyk prepares for his opponents is beyond what anyone else does at heavyweight. Like him and his team study all aspect of a potential opponent, find any little habits or openings, get the opponents height and set up targets at that exact height and practice moves to death on how to avoid opponents attack and get through their defense.

Usyk is known for wearing lifts, and I think this is part if his strategy to 5hrow of his opponents when hey try to size him up and do the same back for example.

Anyway, back to Parker. I believe Parker hasn't really been on Usyk's radar since he hasn't been as prominent and has those losses Usyk probably didn't see him as a factor in the division. But now that Parker has come on stronger and especially since the Bakole KO, Parker has landed on Usyk's radar.

And although Usyk is confident he could beat Parker, he isn't too happy at the thought of all the work required to prepare a solution/strategy for Parker which will be a lot harder than fighting guys he has already got solutions for and worked out like Fury or Joshua.

Its also why I think for Parker the sooner he can fight Usyk the better, despite Usyk being older. I reckon Usyk and his team is watching Parker's tape right now and seeing what they can utilize in a Parker fight and if they can prepare in time without too much risk and work.

If they like what they see, they will take the fight, if they don't they will give it more time and pursue other options.

TLDR - Usyk prepares extensively for his fights, he hasn't prepared for Parker, so he and his team are weighing up whether its worth the work and relative risk vs Joshua, Fury, Chisora where he already has the blueprint downloaded.