Alexander Usik has been the absolute world heavyweight champion for just under a week and holds four important belts: IBF, WBA, WBO and WBC. In addition to this, Usik topped the pound-for-pound rankings and is considered the best boxer in the world.
There was also a fly in the ointment: well-known insiders have already reported that the IBF (International Boxing Federation) plans to strip Usyk of his belt on June 1 for refusing to meet with mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic. If everything turns out this way, Alexander will spend only a couple of weeks at the rank of absolute champion. The logic is simple: Usik has an imminent rematch with Tyson Fury and the champion is not interested in Hrgovic. Consequently, this will delay the split, as the challenger will not get the title opportunity he deserves.
Who is Filip Hrgovic and what you need to know about him:
The Croatian Beast will take the belt from Usik. And then he will become Alexander’s main rival.
But there is a chance that other organizations will follow the IBF’s lead and start requiring Usik to make mandatory title defenses. Alexander’s manager had already stated that the team would request a postponement, and The Ring later confirmed that Usyk had requested the opportunity to have a rematch with Fury, and only then reunite with Filip Hrgovic.
It must be said that the head of the IBF himself was the first to speak that the champion could ask for a postponement, and at the same time explained why Usik could be deprived of the belt: “According to the rule, your contract should not have a clause about a mandatory rematch that would interfere with the defense of the title. This is no secret to promoters. Everyone is aware of the consequences to one degree or another. We have done this before. Any current IBF champion can request an expulsion. Will Usik’s team be able to do this? They have the right to do so. Why didn’t they do this? I don’t know. At the moment, there is no title at stake for the Dubois-Hrgovic fight. At the moment”.
Oleksandr Usyk – Tyson Fury
Photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Hrgovic’s team has already reacted and is of course unhappy: “Philip has been a mandatory contender for several years. Fury and Usyk agreed to a fight with the condition that the winner would immediately relinquish the title. If Alexander does not release the belt by Saturday, then we can consider that this agreement has already been violated.”
There have been no new statements from the IBF, so it is still unclear if the fight between Hrgovic and Dubois will become a title fight. There is also an option where a temporary belt will be introduced for this fight and the winner will be frozen for the next 6-9 months until Usik fights Fury in a rematch. But practice shows that there is not much chance of this happening. The IBF is considered the toughest organization in this regard and has stripped champions of their belts more than once or twice.
Tyson Fury also encountered this. In 2015, the Gypsy King defeated Wladimir Klitschko and took three titles from him, including the IBF. However, the contract stipulated a rematch, meaning the winner was not scheduled to meet mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov. The IBF’s reaction was indicative: after 10 days, Fury was left without a belt. By the way, there was no revenge with Klitschko, since Tyson took a long break from performances.
In the early 2000s, Lennox Lewis also turned down fights with mandatory challengers, resulting in him losing his WBA and IBF titles. The same fate befell Gennady Golovkin in 2018, who was demanded a fight with Sergey Derevyanchenko. As a result, the champion abandoned the fight with the challenger in favor of a lucrative rematch with Saúl Álvarez, and the IBF left Gennady without a belt.
Gennadi Golovkin
Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images
The most recent example is Terence Crawford. Relatively recently, he faced Errol Spence and the contract again stipulated a rematch. The IBF ordered Crawford to begin negotiations for a fight with Jaron Ennis, but Terence’s team said Spence had activated his immediate rematch clause. In response, the International Boxing Federation stripped Crawford of his title. But it must be said that he remained absolute world champion for about two months.
Usik objectively has little chance of remaining the absolute champion in the rematch with Fury. Of course, there were exceptions, such as Jermell Charlo, who was not touched for a year and a half and did not require mandatory protection, but in this case there are some nuances. Last year, Filip Hrgovic was the mandatory challenger, but the IBF did not take the belt from Usik, allowing him to agree to a fight with Fury three times, which was constantly postponed. That is, this was already a favor for the champion.
Usik’s first fight with Fury was dramatic, but there were also nuances:
Fury was lazy, Usyk was the same type. The level of boxing in the big fight was average
Will the organization make concessions a second time? Big question. They can’t freeze Hrgovic forever. Especially if you dismantle Dubois on July 1st. Will Fury’s rematch with Usyk lose its status if there are three belts on the line instead of four? Insignificantly, but, of course, it is much nicer to signal a fight for the absolute championship. That means more money for everyone and will attract more attention. However, everything is going to the point that Usik does not have much time left to live as an absolute world champion.
