Boxing corruption - beat Witherspoon & Chisora to become # 1 contender

I didn't overlook him, I said "in the last 34 years" to exclude cruiser Holyfield.

Haye was high priority and would have fought for the WBA belt in his 3rd HW fight at the latest, as it happened he fought for the belt with half as many heavyweight fights and in half the time that Usyk did.

Maybe they should have matched Usyk with Whyte for the WBO mandatory spot, that would have been fun. But Whyte expressed zero interest in fighting Usyk, for obvious reasons.

 

Why did you want to exclude Holyfield?

Also, Usyk took more time because he was injured a couple times. He was supposed to fight Carlos Takam in his first fight up but he tore a bicep. He was supposed to fight Chisora but he injured his elbow. He had a couple surgeries that cancelled fights.

But he didn't "HAVE" to fight anyone. He chose to. And his fights kept getting delayed because he kept getting injured.

And Haye was going to fight Vitali first for the WBC belt, and he backed out. Then he was going to fight Wlad for the IBF belt, and he backed out. Then he agreed to fight Valuev.

People were excited when Haye moved up. The division was boring. Haye was exciting. He was running around challenging everyone. But no org made him the mandatory before his first fight at heavyweight.

They only did it for Usyk. That's what I'm saying.

It's not common for the orgs to give #1 mandatories at heavyweight to guys moving up from cruiserweight. They do it in the smaller divisions.

It's happened ONE time at heavyweight. Once isn't regularly.

 

This thread is so stupid. Claims a nobody shouldn’t have been given a shot but fails to grasp that if this was a nobody then Joshua should have beaten him.

 

Wasn't the WBO elevation linked to him being undisputed, not just unified? I seem to recall that being a factor in the WBO bumping him to mandatory at HW?

 

34 years is a long time, procedure can change over such a long period.

The Takam fight was delayed due to Usyk's injury but then Takam pulled out himself, who has replaced by Spong who was replaced by Witherspoon. The Injury cost Usyk 5 months. The pandemic was another factor in the delay of the Chisora fight, that probably cost Usyk a similar amount of time.

Considering how Haye was backing out of fights as much as he was it was generous for him to get a title shot within 12 months of moving up, he was clearly given a lot of latitude and priority. Usyk was also calling AJ, Wilder and Fury out but he wasn't a KO artist or from an Anglophone nation, so people weren't so interested. They also really believed that Haye could shake up the division, he received a huge amount of hype.

Once isn't regularly but at the same time it's not regular for fighters to move up to heavyweight while unified/undisputed at cruiser. Only 3 fighters have done it in the 43 year history of the division. If Whyte didn't like it he should have called Usyk out. But considering Whyte's record when offered tough fights in eliminators, that was never going to happen.

 

I don't think it's necessary to be undisputed to get the WBO heavyweight mandatory position but it certainly helps your case. The rules say something about "a number of factors being considered".

 

Joshua’s route to IBF title:

Gary Cornish then Dillian Whyte (British title)

Bought the belt off Martin who took a dive

Defended against Breazeale and Molina, who shouldn’t be anywhere near a title fight

 

I found this: WBO | What is a WBO "Super Champion" - WBO (wboboxing.com)
In the time honoured tradition of boxing organisation rules it's full of qualifiers like 'may' and ultimately it's their decision presumanbly based on how big a sanctioning fee they think it will generate!