Matchoom promoter Eddie Hearn reportedly expects the IBF to order IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk to defend against his mandatory Filip Hrgovic this week for his next fight.
If the IBF attempts to force Usyk to defend against Hrgovic next, it’ll be interesting to see if he complies. Usyk vacating the IBF belt obviously isn’t what Hearn or Hrvovic would want because they wouldn’t get the chance to capture all three belts.
If Usyk vacates the IBF title, Hrgovic would likely face Frank Sanchez or Joseph Parker. Those wouldn’t be easy fights for Hrgovic, because he struggled in his last two contests against Demsey McKean & Zhilei Zhang.
A lot of boxing fans think Hrgovic was given a gift decision against Zhang after dropping and appearing to lose at least six of the twelve rounds.
Hearn states his fighter, 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Hrgovic, won’t be stepping aside to allow Usyk to fight someone else. Usyk hopes to face WBC champion Tyson Fury next for the undisputed championship in January in Saudi Arabia. That would be a massive fight that would pay well for both guys.
Obviously, Hearn, who promotes Hrgovic, would like nothing better than to have him be the one that faces Fury in Saudi Arabia for the undisputed. Ultimately, it’ll be up to the IBF to decide whether Usyk must fight Hgovic next or if he’ll be allowed to face Fury.
We’ll see if a fight between Fury & Usyk can be made. If so, the IBF will be the ones that decide if all four titles will be on the line for that fight.
Oftentimes, the sanctioning bodies allow unification fights to take precedence over mandatory defenses.
According to Hearn, Hrgovic (I16-0, 13 KOs) is due his title shot, as that defense is next up for Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) following his successful title defenses last Saturday night against his WBA mandatory Daniel Dubois in Wroclaw, Poland.
Usyk knocked out Dubois in the ninth round of a fight that saw the champion get dropped hard in round five with a body shot that the referee ruled as a low blow.
“Eddie Hearn has stated that he expects the IBF to officially order Oleksandr Usyk this week to defend his WBA, IBF & WBO heavyweight world titles vs. Filip Hrgovic next. He co-promotes Hrgovic and insists he won’t step aside to allow the undisputed fight with Tyson Fury,” per talkSport.
There’s not much for Usyk to gain from fighting Hrgovic because that guy is not popular. In Hrgovic’s fight against McKean, he got away with throwing a lot of rabbit punches.
