Total heavyweight champion Usyk has taken a first step towards keeping his reign intact. The Ring confirmed that the Ukrainian has submitted to the IBF, as required by current regulations, permission not to immediately defend the title against the official challenger and to be able to grant the rematch to Tyson Fury. As we reported two days ago, this possibility is foreseen by the regulations of the acronym and it was even the IBF president Daryl Peoples who suggested it to Usyk's team. The official challenger Filip Hrgovic and the British Daniel Dubois will compete on June 1st at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in a semi-final that will designate the future opponent of the reigning champion. The enigma will have to be resolved by the appropriate IBF committee and the decision will be made before Hrgovic-Dubois, considering that the champion's request for authorization of an intermediate match was forwarded only 24 hours ago
Who cares, once you’re undisputed you achieved that goal. There’s too many mandatories when you have 4 belts to keep them and to also have those big legacy fights.
I am glad he gets to hold onto it. But he will still be stripped because he can't defend against Hrgovic or Joshua since those two will fight in September.
Should not be a problem with Saudi money backing Usyk. Charr is the mandatory? Just feed him to the winner of Wilder vs Zhang. Or Parker. Hrgovic? Keep him busy with Dubois. Kabayel? That guy will fight anybody.
They can´t strip Usyk because Hrgovic has taken another fight. If anything, it will be Hrgovic who looses his mandatory spot.
really? So is Hrgovic beats Joshua in September, they can't strip Usyk in October and give Filip the belt? I am not an expert on divisional rules.
Indeed good news. Strip Usyk of that title would be a douche move. Undisputed is not a toy to play for federations. Its serious for him, fans and boxing in general.
Right now it seems like they have given Usyk an exception. But at some point they will order the fight again, and if then Hrgovic decides to fight someone else then he will loose his mandatory spot. Imagine if I was the champ and you the mandatory. And you just say: "Nah, I´l fight someone else instead." No way would the IBF give you the belt.
Good decision by the IBF. Undisputed being on the line again is a big plus for all the governing bodies.
Interesting to see if this feeds into the rematch decision - I know Fury has said that he doesn't care about Undisputed and only the money, but it's surely a factor in taking the re-match or not if all the belts are up for grabs again?
If I were Usyk, I wouldn't fight mandatories. I would fight big names who would bring me maximum salary, Fury, AJ, Wilder. 3 fights and at least $150M guaranteed, then go to retirement. Who cares about Hrgovic, Dubois, Karayel etc... they would bring in max $2-3M a fight.
