The WBO have ordered Oleksandr Usyk to defend against Joseph Parker

I believe in usyk that he is a man and will face the mandatory .

If he indeed vacates , so ducks parker to push for another meaningless undisputed with a opponent he alraedy fought , then ... you know .

 

Like we all do, except for some DDD fanboys.

 

Agit is a WBC Interim title holder, he's not ranked by WBO, so I don't think Parker will be permitted to defend against him.

 

It could possibly happen. I recall some time last year WBO and WBC were forming closer ties and maybe recognizing each other's champions. I can't for the life of me remember where I heard or read that though.

 

With Parker also being at QP, they will surely find an agreement with the WBO to be able to do Usyk vs Dubois II at Wembley in June-July before.

 

I'm not sure it's so much a reinvention of Parker so much as a massive change in the division - the most proven and experienced guys have, mostly, either retired (Fury, Pov, etc) or got old and declined (Joshua, Whyte, Joyce, even Wilder and Zhang, much less proven though they are).

Parker, like Dubois, fills the void best purely because he's been around long enough to be proven, and he's on as good run as it's realistically possible to be with the thinness of the division at the moment.

Heck, this explains on some level why guys like Bakole got hyped so hard with so little proof behind them - on some level you could even say the same about Kabayel, who's suddenly in many people's top 3-4 despite only having a single contender level win.

It'll take time for the dust to settle... And it'll settle much faster if this next era actually fight each other regularly.

 

I feel the same about Bakole and Kabayel, but feel Parker is in the same boat. He beat Zhang and a child's drawing of Wilder...and the worst version of the world heavyweight champ of sparring stories....

 

Yup. for how good usyk is, if we are just saying names not including rematches having Derek Chisora & Chazz Witherspoon in the top 5 people you've fought at heavyweight is pretty weak especially considering there's some real good fights out there for him right now.

Wasting time with one of ur last fights on another rematch for a fight you won comfortably before when theres fighters that truly deserve there chance would be truly disappointing

 

What is your Top 10?

 

The WBC 'Interim' and WBA 'Regular' Light Heavyweight belts were just unified (Benavidez and Morrell)

The WBO seems to be the only organization that doesn't allow "interim" belts to be unified with other organizations. The WBC doesn't have a problem with it. Neither does the WBA.

Remember, LESS THAN A MONTH AGO, the WBO was days away from stripping Parker of his WBO 'Interim" title if he challenged Dubois for the IBF belt.

The WBO was going to let him take the WBO belt into the ring with Dubois and be introduced with it, and then they were going to strip him when the bell rang.

In the span of three weeks, we've gone from that (them stripping Parker) to the WBO demanding Usyk fight Parker, or basically being stripped and Parker being named full WBO champ.

The WBO is all over the place.

 

Crazy, right?

 

If Turki blocks this then the Saudi honeymoon really is over.

 

They are actually quite consistent. They had a nr contender/mandatory but the champion was occupied with unification matches and other mandatory obligations, so they sanctioned a fight for the interim belt. It´s just a belt to keep the mandatory spot active, and it makes no sense that there are unified interim champions.
Mind you, the WBO interim belt current lineage dates back to 2022 - they are long overdue ordering that fight.

 

Couldn't agree more
It would be different if he dominated the division for years, but if he wants to be active he should beat other top guys instead of an easy rematch

 

For me though, the 'easy rematch' is in fact the hardest fight he can take. He beats Parker without going into top gear, he beats Kabayel similarly. So, let's say he DOES fight them and win easily...and retire...and let's, for argument sake, say Dubois takes two 'money' fights and, let's be generous, let's say he knocks out two of the three from AJ, Wilder and Fury; I'm not sure about Fury, but this is a discussion. It would end up like Floyd beating Canelo...his best win for me, but right place, right time, no rematch despite what Canelo went on to achieve...

Usyk can't win here. If he goes one way and 'cleans house', people will say he should have fought Dan, if he fights Dan he's ducking the others. For me, and I suspect he is an analytical guy, he needs to fight Dubois next because he can still beat him now, and because even if he is fading, he can go on and beat Parker/Kabayel. If he does it the other way he around and keeps fighting, Dubois probably smashes him in 18 months...and I'm taking Dubois to beat him whenever they fight. I think Usyk has aged and we haven't seen Dubois best. Usyk can box Dan's ears off over 12, but that split second of timing he IS losing, that half a round of energy that isn't there can also see it going the other way...