Oleksandr Usyk vacates IBF heavyweight title in ‘present’ to Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois
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- Опубликовано: 1 июл 2024
- Oleksandr Usyk vacates IBF heavyweight title in ‘present’ to Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois
Undisputed champion forced to relinquish one of four belts he won against Tyson Fury just five weeks ago, setting up all-British title fight
26 June 2024 • 5:03pm
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Oleksandr Usyk vacates IBF heavyweight title in 'present' to Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois
Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois pose outside Wembley stadium CREDIT: Getty Images /Mark Robinson
Anthony Joshua and fellow Briton Daniel Dubois will fight for the IBF heavyweight belt on September 1 at Wembley Stadium after Oleksandr Usyk was forced to relinquish the belt.
The London event is the first Saudi Arabian-backed promotion in the UK since the Middle East state began its heavy involvement in boxing.
With Usyk set to fight Tyson Fury in a rematch in December, the Ukrainian was forced to vacate his IBF belt just five weeks after becoming the first man in 25 years to be crowned undisputed heavyweight champion with a split-decision victory over the Briton in Riyadh.
Usyk’s mandatory IBF title defence against challenger Filip Hrgovic was left pending and 26-year-old Dubois became the new interim IBF heavyweight champion by beating the Croatian earlier this month.
Dubois and Joshua met face-to-face at a press conference on Wednesday and had to be separated by security while they prepared for filming of the TV series The Gloves Are Off. Dubois insisted that the animosity was genuine and that he was “ready to go” while Joshua, already a two-time heavyweight champion, said he would save his fire for the night of the contest.
“This is my time and I’m taking over,” said Dubois, who, at 26, is eight years younger than Joshua. “He has been a target for me for a long time, and this fight is not going to last 12 rounds. There was no handshake behind the scenes, we’ll do that when I’ve defeated him.”
Usyk, in a social media message, said that giving up his IBF belt would be “my present” to clear the way for Dubois and Joshua to fight for the crown. The Ukrainian, who is still the WBO, WBA and WBC champion, has beaten Joshua twice and Dubois once.
The relinquishing by Usyk of one of the belts so soon after his unification victory demonstrates the pitfalls faced by a multi-belt world champion. Unfortunately, with how the sport has evolved, four possible world champions in each weight division precludes an undisputed champion from reigning for long before the belts are split off due to mandated challengers.
The previous undisputed heavyweight champion was Britain’s Lennox Lewis, who defeated Evander Holyfield to claim the tag in 1999. He was also stripped of belts during his reign. In 2000, the WBA took away its belt when Lewis chose to face Michael Grant instead of mandatory challenger John Ruiz. Two years later, the IBF followed suit because Lewis did not face mandatory challenger Chris Byrd.
In the four-belt era, it is nigh on impossible to satisfy all the demands of the sanctioning bodies.
The 37-year-old Usyk had put in a request to retain the IBF belt until December 21, to make his expected rematch with Fury another battle for the undisputed title. However, IBF rules meant Usyk would have been stripped of its belt unless he fought Dubois. 
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Hello, thanks for posting, lazy man. :)
Hahah, I'm post almost every day. I sometimes post to "non subscribers" so I don't bore the death out of my subs 🤣🤣🤣
Also been busy at work this 2 weeks.
Ohhhh dude, I just realised why u said that hahaha.... I forgot I said what I did at the beginning hahahaha
@@Themozartthug Hey, someone has to pay attention: should be you, but I'll do it for ya! :)
@@DBCHeavyweightBoxing hahaha, true brother 👊
Fury's gonna knock out usyk in rematch
Hahaha. You people when usky keeps you think he doesn't understand what he does. Let you hands talk in the ring not mouth. Tyson fury won't beat usky I will remind u