Oleksandr Usyk is vacating his IBF title!

I don't see the downside here:

1) it keeps the division moving a little, as let's be honest Usyk hasn't been the most active champion, and only has a few years remaining

2) Usyk can now either fight a voluntary against someone like Zhang or Kabayel, or he just takes on his WBO mandatory: Parker.
- #2 is what everyone wanted anyway...

3) he is still the man of the division

4) Fury gets messed around a little in return

Ws all round there

5) Lewis also dropped belts to pursue the fights he wanted.

 

Technically he's choosing to vacate the IBF because he doesn't want to fight Dubois again. That said, I think the IBF is being unreasonable here.

Dubois has only recently become interim when he fought Hrgovic, and that was only fully sanctioned as a interim title fight a few days before the match. Why should Usyk have to fight Dubois, a guy he already beat, before a Fury rematch, in order to remain Undisputed?

It's horrible for Boxing. For the newly crowned Undisputed Heavyweight Champion to vacate Undisputed so soon after becoming Undisputed, that really sucks. I mean we were all so excited about finally having an Undisputed Heavyweight Champion, and now this?? WHYYYYYYY?!?

I mean Usyk in the tweet is being all nice about it, but he should be pissed. What should happen is AJ should fight Dubois for interim then the winner challenges for Undisputed (winner of Fury Usyk rematch).

This is just stupid. Shame on you IBF, and I'm not even upset at Usyk, he shouldn't have to rematch Dubois so soon after beating Fury, this is a travesty honestly.

 

The IBF are just milking as much money as they can. They will get the AJ Dubois pay day and then likely the winner of Usyk Fury 2 v the winner of AJ Dubois.

 

I like this.

Fury is only in the undisputed picture due to one belt previous and a rematch clause.

If he had fought Usyk in London late 23 with a rematch in Saudi early 24 ... maybe ok. But he's already wasted near on a year of fan's and other contender's time.

I can just image the BS about him being a 95% A-side should he win in December ... possibly demanding another rematch clause or retiring to come back at the end of the year or what-ever. If he beats Usyk then AJ/Dub. winner then I guess he deserves the undisputed status.

 

I posted how to avoid this ridiculous situation last month.

Here's the link, you can replace 'Hrgovic' with 'Joshua or Dubois':

IBF Mandatory Filip Hrgovic denied title shot for the 4th time - IBF president confirms

And here's how to completely avoid similar ridiculous situations from happening again:

IBF Mandatory Filip Hrgovic denied title shot for the 4th time - IBF president confirms

 

Even though Turki has made it obvious he favours Fury, Fury has the cheek to say he can't possibly get a points decision against Usyk.
What a deluded idiot

 

Then he should have dropped another belt. Giving AJ or Dubios another undeserved title shot doesn't do anything for the division.

 

Quite the opposite

IBF was up next, so dropping another belt wouldn't change anything

By dropping the IBF belt, we aren't forced to see Usyk v Dubois/Joshua again. Unless Turki "mandates" it

 

Good now Fury will not be fighting for undisputed lol.

 

It's not a bad thing at all. we all want to see the undisputed championship defended, but if he has to fight Joshua or Dubois again to do it, what's the point?

And he is the champ regardless of what the alphabet soup gangs say.

Hopefully Fury will hurry up with his collapse already and we can have Usyk-Parker in December.

 

He didn't need to drop the IBF belt until after the rematch. So dropping the belt before then makes no sense unless it's purely to gift AJ an easy belt.

 

I have no insights into the inner workings of behind the scenes. But I suspect he has been pressured into this decision from some quarter.

Then again, I imagine this route keeps the IBF onside, should Usyk decide in the future that he wants to, for example, challenge for cruiserweight titles. And to be honest, I think it was a respectable choice by Usyk.

IBF allowed Usyk to become undisputed, and now Usyk allows the IBF to still respect their own ladder and their next champion.

After all, from the perspective of Dubois v Joshua, it's better to be a secondary belt holder who won the IBF in a good match-up, than a secondary belt holder who gets emailed the championship.

And Usyk will still be the man of the division, either way.

It could be as you suggest that Usyk wants someone to get an easy title. I guess he could be setting up an option to circle back round for an easy big money fight. But honestly, I suspect he has been pressured into this decision. And it kind of makes sense for all parties involved.

And I still think it helps the division, because we are all assuming that Usyk wins the rematch, but what if Fury wins? Fury is very unpredictable, and who is to say Fury upon winning undisputed wouldn't have just retired...?

 

It would be interesting if he had been pressured into it, but it's still largely irrelevant. The belts will splinter anyway as he's planning on going back to Cruiserweight.

Overall I'm disappointed with Usyk not defending the undisputed title before leaving, and handing AJ a belt he quite frankly hasn't earned. Though I might be looking past Dubios, so who knows.

Fury winning/losing makes no difference to me, but maybe this is Turkis way of forcing AJ/Fury for undisputed? Interesting times ahead.

 

Yes, that was kind of my thinking too. IF Fury wins, it forces him to fight the winner of Dubois/Joshua

If Usyk wins, what I wrote in the first post is still how I see that (or at least I hope Usyk fights someone new)