Undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk has given up the IBF portion of his world championship.
In a social media message, Usyk sent a message to Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, who will be fighting for the vacant IBF belt in the fall. “Anthony and Daniel, listen. I know a world title is important to you. The IBF belt is my present for you for September 21.”
As a result, when Usyk returns December 21 for his rematch against Tyson Fury, it will be without the undisputed title on the line.
Usyk is a generous man if you ask me.
He is already undisputed. The result of that fight changes nothing. He already beat both those guys. The belts mean nothing. His is the champ regardless.
Agree w/ you 100%
Agree with you 100%, Kp. Usyk is the undisputed heavyweight champ, with or without that IBF belt. He already beat both Joshua and Dubois, and beat them convincingly. They can duke it out for Usyk’s leftovers and both Usyk and Fury can save themselves several hundreds of thousands of dollars in bs sanctioning fees when they fight again in December. Merry Christmas, gentlemen.
Things like that increase the chances that these organizations become irrelevant.
Makes sense what you wrote. Maybe that is one of the purposes for Usyk’s actions. Then that is what Usyk should have said, instead of lying, misleading the public with false statements / empty words.
Classy move by Usyk. He beat both AJ and Dubois and now he’s giving them a shot at a vacant title. Usyk has a great chance at beating Tyson Fury again in the rematch, but even if he doesn’t and Tyson Fury wins, you know there will most likely be a rubber match in 2025.
Usyk is smart. His gesture means that even if Fury beats him in the 2nd fight, he alone (Usyk) remains the undisputed champion
If, IF, Fury wins the rematch he will not hold the IBF belt. LOL
That’s what he just said.
No he did not. The words are right there to read them.
Usyk is smart. His gesture means that even if Fury beats him in the 2nd fight, he alone (Usyk) remains the undisputed champion
Who cares about these meaningless alphabet belts anymore anyway?
This guy has a good heart.
What a shrewd move by Usyk. Very belittling for Joshua and Dubois. Joshua will likely win and his IBF belt will be considered charity. Secondly, Fury will never get the opportunity to fight/beat Usky for undisputed. Even if Fury wins, Usky will always one up him with beating him for all the gold.
Usyk vs. Beterbiev in 2025 for Cruiserweight title if it’s allowed for a Ukranian to fight a Russian at the moment.
Yeah, that might be an interesting fight. The fight I want to see Usyk in @ HW is against Kabayel.
Why would Usyk fight for a title in a division nobody cares about? Already proved that the division is meaningless by beating a big heavyweight.
Beterbiev floored Usyk in amateurs and the Russian vs. Ukraine thing will fire up Usyk. The belt is just to hold their pants up.
– Just goes to show you that terms like “undisputed” are based more on the dumb-a$$ sanctioning bodies than the actual fighters themselves.
– “Linear” does not rely on the sanctioning bodies, as this term is reserved for “the man who beat the man”……
Boxing should now demote the IBF to a second-tier title, like the WBO was in the 1990s. The media should continue to recognise Usyk as the undisputed champ.
The *only* reason I’ll disagree with you is because Usyk relinquished the title voluntarily. Their insistence on him fighting a mandatory before a Fury rematch was a hurdle that to their credit they budged on. But any way you see it? It sucks.
Lennox Lewis vacated his WBA belt rather than fight Ruiz but the media continued to recognise him as the ‘undisputed, true champion’ because the WBA and Ruiz were so embarrassing. Same thing happened when he vacated the IBF rather than fight Byrd. I wish the Saudis would just buy up these infernal bodies, they’ve been ruining boxing my entire life.
The IBF has a long history of stripping true champions of that belt because they won’t fight a meaningless fight against an alphabet mandatory.
Some of y’all don’t make any sense. Isn’t that what many of you complain about on this site; is that Boxing Organizations allowing the Charlos, Canelos, and Haneys of the world executive privilege in holding onto belts with Champion in Recess titles and such? Since it’s Usyk, according to your sociopathic psychology, the rules should be changed and we’re reminded that he’s a hero, a gentleman, generous, holier than thou, omnipotent, upright, and forthcoming…gtfoh…the implicit and explicit bias is on full display today, boy I tell ya.
“…..according to your sociopathic psychology”
– What about your sociopathic psychology???
Fury deserves the chance for an immediate rematch for all the belts.
After that I think it would have been fine to split them up.
But they are known as I Be Felonious for a reason.
I hope no one recognizes the winner of Joshua or Dubois as an actual champ because this is pathetic.
I do see some humor in this though. The build up to Usyk Fury was that “We have not had an undisputed champion in 25 years!” No one added that it would only last just a little over 25 days!!!! LOL!!!!
I would have liked to have seen him defend the undisputed title at least once.
It seems like a lot of fighters are in it for the satisfaction of having gotten the title, but not for having made several defenses.
Gary G, judging by some of your prior posts, you seem to have more “issues” then I do, God Bless.
Sounds to me that Gary G has worked past his issues; however, you continue to have issues day in day out. White fighters trigger you, ha! Demented, Moronic, too much Vitriol is the meaning of your name. Plus, the three fighters you used as examples above, one is a wife beater, a cherry picker for his next opponent and ate “tainted meat,” and a racist just like you,DMV. At least you could of brought up better examples for your argument.
Any way you slice it, this is a damned shame.
“The IBF belt is my present for you” Absolute dishonesty. Tell the truth or shut up.
Doesn’t really matter a pretty Hollyfield would have destroyed Usek.
Holyfield lost in his first fight with Michael Moorer, a good but plodding southpaw heavyweight. With Usyk’s movement and southpaw stance, Holyfield would have been unable to jump in and throw his combinations. Holyfield could not throw punches while moving and he could only bounce up and down and jump in and out. He was not a good lateral mover. Add to that the fact that he was not a one punch knockout guy and it’s an easy fight for Usyk.
USYK is the authentic Champion
USYK is the authentic Champion. When will these boxing-sanctioning bodies understand that the Champion makes the belt, NOT the other way around?
Interesting development. Frankly, I’m not interested in a Usyk-Fury rematch. Fury needs to retire. He won’t be able to beat Usyk in a rematch, since he simply doesn’t have the tools. He’s on the tail end of his career, lacking motivation to properly train, and back to dealing with some personal issues.
Dubois is no champion-caliber fighter, which says a great deal about the legitimacy of the IBF belt at the moment. It is a diminished belt in significance because it’s being given to a mediocre, undeserving fighter who didn’t win it in the ring. I guess the IBF was afraid of becoming irrelevant with an undisputed champion. Since there was a rematch clause in the contract in the fight between Usyk and Fury, there should be an automatic suspension of mandatory requirements until after the rematch. So unreasonable to strip a fighter of a belt because he won’t fight the designated mandatory since he has an immediate rematch clause in the contract of the fight he was approved of participating in.
I’d like to see one champion, but I suppose those days are over in the heavyweight division.
..and so it goes…
Smart business move, it gives the winner of Usyk/Fury 2 another big “unifying” fight afterward. It’s a no-lose for Usyk only generating more interest from the casual boxing fan and marketing, for the next fight.
one less sanctioning fee
The only reason the IBF was stripped is because of the immediate rematch clauses.
They should change the language in those rematch clauses and allow for the undisputed champion to make his mandatory first then proceed to the rematch.
it sucks that as soon as we see a heavyweight champion that is undisputed, they are instantly stripped.
Now sure Bowe threw the WBC in the trash but Lennox should have fought Ruiz and saved us from having to put up with Ruiz instead Lewis pretty much did the same with his WBA belt and threw it in the trash for Ruiz and Holyfield to fight for.
However here with the automatic rematch clause we are where we are…. and to be honest Parker should have gotten this shot and I am saying this as an AJ fan.
AJ is about to become a 3 time champion this is something Tyson couldnt do…. However Dubios is not going to be an easy fight in my opinion he is better prepared as he has faced much tougher opposition recently.
Good man.
No need to keep ALL the belts hostage.
His accomplishments are in the books, and they can’t take that away from him.
Like the IBF tried to do with Bud, but not Spence.
What a Brillant move It will take away Fury’s ambition to become the Undisputed Its a revenge move for sure!