For some time now, the accepted version of events would be that the winner of the undisputed heavyweight championship – Oleksandr Usyk – would be quickly forced to vacate the IBF belt to allow Filip Hrgovic, long-time mandatory challenger, to fight for it.
Usyk added Tyson Fury‘s WBC belt to his collection of the WBA, WBO and IBF via a split decision victory this month, and now holds all the marbles in the top division.
His undisputed fight with Fury was signed on agreement with the IBF that the winner would fight its mandatory challenger Hrgovic next. Given the two have a rematch clause, that won’t be happening.
It was therefore an option that Usyk would only hold all four straps for a matter of weeks before being stripped, and that Hrgovic would compete for the vacant belt in his fight with number four ranked Daniel Dubois this weekend.
Promoter Frank Warren recently told Seconds Out that since Usyk was serving a standard medical suspension the sanctioning body couldn’t rightly take the belt from him, and that the Hrgovic-Dubois fight was more likely to be for an Interim title.
That is news to the Croatian heavyweight, who told The Stomping Ground that it was his understanding he would be fighting for the full world title on Saturday.
“What do you mean isn’t [for the vacant belt]? It should be for the belt, man, what are you talking about? It is. That’s what I heard. I mean, that was the plan from the beginning, so what changed now? Who said, you? I don’t know, man. I expect it to be for the title. That’s what I was told.”
Hrgovic faces Dubois as part of the Matchroom vs Queensberry card, live on DAZN from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
