At the annual WBA congress taking place these days in Orlando (USA), the organization appointed a mandatory title defense for the unified heavyweight champion Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) – he must fight the owner of the “regular” belt Briton Daniel Dubois (19-1 , 18 KOs).
The WBA insists that now it is their turn – they have not held mandatory defenses in this weight since 2018 (!). The boxer from Ukraine has other priorities – he plans to determine the absolute champion of the division at the beginning of next year in a confrontation with the owner of the WBC belt Briton Tyson Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs).
Columnist Salvador Rodriguez
tellsthat “The WBA will ask Usyk to defend the title with Dubois if it turns out that there are no negotiations with Fury.”
The problem is that Fury and Dubois have a common promoter – this is Frank Warren (queensberry promotions). Now he can dictate his terms. Moreover, another of his fighters claims to fight with Usyk – Briton Joe Joyce is the mandatory challenger from the WBO.
Yesterday, the WBA announced that they would return fighters from Russia and Belarus to the ratings. And Usyk commented on the skirmish with Fury: “His ass is on fire.”