First Dillian Whyte. Now Oleksandr Usyk?
The world wants to see an all-British showdown between unified titleholder Anthony Joshua and WBC titlist Tyson Fury for all four major heavyweight belts, assuming they get past Kubrat Pulev and Deontay Wilder, respectively.
However, mandatory challenges keep threatening to upend the ultimate matchup.
First, Dillian Whyte, ranked No. 1 by the WBC, put Fury in a position where he might’ve had to choose between retaining his title or fighting Joshua. Alexander Povetkin took care of that problem by stopping Whyte.
Now it’s Oleksandr Usyk’s turn to potentially spoil the show. If the Ukrainian beats Derek Chisora later this year, he reportedly will become the WBO’s mandatory challenger because he’s a former undisputed champion.
“AJ has got the problem of Oleksandr Usyk,” Joshua and Usyk promoter Eddie Hearn told DAZN. “I think AJ would prefer Derek Chisora to stick one on Usyk’s chin and take that problem away.
“… We have to find ways to maintain our belts, as well. That will be difficult for us to do because the WBO wants the winner of Pulev against Joshua to fight Usyk. So there’s of different permutations.”
Hearn went over a few of the possible solutions.
“Maybe Joshua against Fury is for no belts and just for the calling of the best heavyweight in the world,” Hearn said. “Who knows what’s going to happen? We want all the belts to be on the line.”
“… The focus for the majority of fight fans is to see the undisputed heavyweight world championship [fight. That is the focus of Anthony Joshua.
“Maybe you have Joshua fight Usyk — if he beats Chisora — in spring summer of next year we do the undisputed fight afterwards. It’s very important to Anthony for the belts to be on the line.”
