Fans are very much interested to see how Oleksandr Usyk will get on in his heavyweight adventure. The man who last year made boxing history, by becoming the very first man to have held all four universally recognised world titles at cruiserweight, is likely to have his heavyweight debut this summer and, according to a news piece from ESPN.com, promoter Eddie Hearn is working on a Usyk/Alexander Povetkin match-up for May 18th.
Hearn wants Usyk’s big man debut to take place in the U.S, to go out on DAZN, and Chicago is a possible location for Usyk Vs. Povetkin. It’s a good fight, a solid fight and a potentially risky fight for southpaw Usyk, 16-0(12) to take in his heavyweight debut but all concerned clearly feel the Ukrainian has the stuff needed to be moved fast and meaningfully at heavyweight.
Povetkin is looking to return to action for the first time since being stopped by heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua in September of last year, and the Russian insists he has a good bit of fight left in him yet, that at age 39 he still has the desire and the drive. It’s a smart move that Usyk is looking to fight Povetkin, a relatively small man in the land of the heavyweight giants. Povetkin has actually fought a cruiserweight who was moving up before now; his exciting slugfest with Marco Huck back in February of 2012.
Povetkin, 34-2(24) won that one (but it was close) and he will no doubt look at Usyk and think he has what it takes to rudely welcome the 200 pounder to the heavyweight ranks – and send him back down to cruiserweight. If this fight does take place on May 18th, that date will be even more worthy of noting in your fight diary: that night will see two WBSS semi-finals take place at bantamweight in Glasgow, UK, and the big WBC heavyweight title fight return battle between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury will also go down that night.
If it turns out that all of these fights go ahead without a hitch, the biggest problem fight fans will have is catching all the action as it unfolds.