Just watch now how IBF is going to strip Usyk. And to be fair they will be in their right. As much as i like Usyk, he make big mistake with Fury. He should have moved from that fight long ago. Fury is a fake champ, he and Wilder always was like that. The moment Fury ducked the fight last year, firstly in February, and then make everything as hard as it can get for the April fight, to duck again, when Usyk accepted the 70-30%, this should have been telling for Usyk, to just move on, and that this guy is a fraud. Fury holded the division hostage for way too long. We won't see Undisputed for 1 sole reason, and that is blatant corruption of the Governing Body, and especially WBC. They should have stripped the faker the moment he decide to have soft touches like Chisora/Ngannou. Hard to be a boxing fan with this blatant bias and corruption going on.
IBF do tend to be sticklers when it comes to mandatories which is why so often it's them stripping a unified champion first so yeah I fully expect the IBF to strip Usyk, ending the chance of an undisputed championship fight and that's a shame. Usyk did go too far to secure the fight in hindsight. I get why he did it and commend him for wanting to simply prove he's the best and not prioritise money and adopt that horrible business mindset so many boxers have adopted.
No it's not a shame, and to be quite fair Usyk deserves it, as he is so stubborn over this Fraud. IBF literally gave Usyk 2 year time to make this fight. Don't forget Skill Challenge wanted to host the fight last year, and it was all set and done for the February, just for Fury to duck the fight, and said he wanted it in Wembley. And what happen next? He ducked the Wembley April fight as well, on top of that he faked he was in a camp, and his own trainer Sugar Hill exposes him. What happen in December 23th date though? Fury wasn't injured, he himself and his fanatics on here claimed he doesn't need more than 5 weeks camp. He ducked that date too. Now he ducked that one too. Why in the blue hell IBF should wait any longer? It's Usyk fault all along for falling for this fraud tricks. It's clear what Fury tactics with Usyk was from the get going. Trying to age him out as much as possible, but it's Usyk fault that he is falling for this. Just move on and freeze the guy out, and all of his tricks will be for nothing, and his resume will be in scramble. I know Fury fans doesn't want to hear it, but when a legacy fight like this is available, you should take it straight away, and forget everything else. Usyk was ready to postponed AJ rematch. There was offer, there was ready to step aside money(Saudi), Fury rejected wanting a warm up. Then Fury ducked to fight Chisora, and you were all promised Usyk will be next, just for Fury to duck once again and fought Ngannou. And then he ducked Usyk fight twice more.
BTW i forget to mention that no one in the division deserve this, and to be put on hold, because of some Fraud paper Champion. The division is absolutely stacked with top quality fighters, and people saying this is a weak division are absolutely out of their mind. This is prolly the strongest division ever. Usyk, AJ, Hrgovic, Wilder(fraud), Fury(fraud), Zhang, Joyce, Parker, Whyte(banned), Sanchez, Kabayel, Bakole, Dubois, Anderson, Ruiz, Wallin, Wardley and even guys like Bakhodir Jalolov, Makhmudov, Efe Ajagba, Kossobutsky, Miller, etc. The so call Champions would not even fight 10% of the fighters on that list, which is absolutely terrible. How can you can prove you are the best of an era, when you haven't fought even the 10% of the contenders .....
I spoke to an IBF official today for what it's worth and they're well aware his mandatory is overdue. Going to be very interesting to see how it pans out, especially after the Opetaia debacle where they were slaughtered left right and centre.
I didn’t get the outcry over Opetaia when he was choosing to fight sub-British level opponents instead of the Breidis rematch. with the amout of money he was getting for can crushing it was a no brainer, but stop bitching and drop the belt, thems the rules
Cause you obviously don't know the situation. Briedis was still injured and wasn't ready for a fight. So IBF essentially wanting to force Opetaia to be inactive. It's not like Opetaia don't wan't to face Briedis. It was Briedis that wasn't available. So trying to force Opetaia to stay inactive is a beyond garbage.
It was quite simple really. Their mandatory challenger was injured and unavailable to fight. Briedis’ promotional team were part of a petition to the IBF for Opetaia to take another fight as their man wasn’t ready. The mandatories rights were not being infringed upon.
Plus as I remember they said nothing when the fight was announced at that big London press conference which everyone in the boxing world was watching Rather they waited weeks & when Dec 23rd was 2 weeks or less away, they sent a letter to Opetaia threatening to strip him If you had concerns about him trying to stay busy, then why didn't you say anything the day the fight was announced or the day after I remember post that conference in London, Jai gave a bunch of interviews to the London press where he said that he flew to London expecting he would be offered the Briedis fight but found out Briedis wasn't ready & said that he hoped to rematch Briedis in Feb Then they said Zurdo will fight Briedis for the vacant title only for Zurdo to tell them to fu*ck off as he found another belt more convenient to fight for. After that things came back full circle with Opetaia vs Briedis 2 being for the IBF belt only for boxing's biggest clown Luke Fury to f*ck it up again
Strip him! I just don't want to be there when he drawers drop; bad enough we have to see his fat piggy love handles when he fights.
Up to a point I have to agree. The IBF is strict as it should be to ensure it's champion is legit... Sometimes they go a bit too far, but the opposite approach is worse - let's call it World Boxing Casuals, or "WBC" for short , where your champion can keep their belt for a basically unlimited time and be fed pathetic mandatories or none at all. On a personal level I sympathise with Usyk being messed around - but at the same time having orgs that will keep their champions busy and not allow them to wait forever on duckers isn't a bad thing.
