A little over two weeks ago, the boxing world awaited the next move of world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. Now it seems the 39-year-old will face Deontay Wilder in a farewell bout; the making of which comes with vast consequences.
It’s certainly been an eventful fortnight in the banner division. Everything, it seems, has changed.
We can trace its beginning back to mid-June when Saudi Arabian powerbroker Turki Alalshikh declared his intention to host a ‘peace summit’ to resolve the ongoing promotional disputes surrounding the proposed showdown between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
Peace, however, is not exactly what followed.
On June 22 came the news that the WBC had enforced an end-of-month deadline on Usyk to defend his title against then-interim beltholder, Agit Kabayel. Within days, word from the Ukrainian’s camp suggested the veteran was considering retirement and would not be bullied into accepting a contest with Kabayel.
Then, on June 26, came the moment that changed everything. Usyk, the holder of WBC, WBA, and IBF titles, was going to relinquish his belts to focus on a “last dance” of his choosing.
The following day, acting quickly, the WBC elevated Kabayel to full champion. By the end of the week, he was calling out Joshua, Fury, Moses Itauma, and WBO boss, Daniel Dubois. It was a new era, his era, he said.
Yet the loose ends were plentiful.
On June 30, the IBF declared that Frank Sanchez, the organization’s leading contender, should fight Itauma for the vacant belt with the end of July enforced as the deadline for the teams to come to an agreement.
But there was a Filip Hrgovic-shaped problem. The Croat was due to face Itauma on August 29 in a contest already eagerly awaited. And Hrgovic, with the promise of a shot at Dubois written into his contract should he upset Itauma, was going nowhere.
Yet if he does indeed win, Hrgovic, who lost to Dubois on cuts in 2024, will have to wait for another rematch to go ahead first. It was last week confirmed to BoxingScene that Fabio Wardley, beaten to a pulp by Dubois in May, is back in training with view to his contracted sequel with the new WBO boss.
Meanwhile, Fury declared he was going to take on the aging and unfancied Mariusz Wach on July 24 in Thailand, the day before Joshua does battle with Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia.
Alalshikh’s peace summit went ahead in London on July 1. Representatives from Zuffa, Queensberry, Matchroom and DAZN were in attendance. Whether they were all in the same room at the same time remains unknown.
How still the heavyweight waters were when the summit was called. Not even Alalshikh, the division’s puppet master, could have foreseen how rough they were going to get.
