Oleksandr Usyk is set to lose his title as undisputed heavyweight champion of the world despite beating Tyson Fury.
The Ukrainian defeated the Gypsy King in a blockbuster clash on Saturday night in Saudi Arabia, winning via split decision after the judges scored the fight 115-112, 113-114, 114-113.
It meant that Usyk unified the heavyweight division after taking the WBC title off Fury, which was added to his WBA (Super), WBO, IBF and IBO titles.
However, the Ukrainian is set to be stripped of the IBF title in the coming weeks, with the 37-year-old instead focusing on a contracted rematch with Fury, which is expected to take place around October.
This is because Filip Hrgovic, Usyk’s mandatory challenge for the IBF title, won’t wait for that rematch to take place, meaning the IBF belt will be vacated by Usyk and then up for grabs when the Hrgovic takes on Daniel Dubois in June of this year.
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Oleksandr Usyk is set to lose his world title despite beating Tyson Fury on Saturday night
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Usyk defeated the Gypsy King via a split decision after an impressive display in Saudi Arabia
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The victory meant the Ukrainian became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world
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Whoever wins in that June bout is then expected to face Anthony Joshua at Wembley in September.
This means that by the time of Usyk and Fury’s rematch, the victor of that bout will not be the unified world champion as they will be missing the IBF crown.
It would then be up to the winner whether they would try to reclaim that to unify the division again.
However, speaking after the fight, the issue of losing the IBF title didn’t seem to be something that Usyk was particularly bothered about.
The Ukrainian was tired after he endured an extra long build-up to the fight with Fury when the original date of the contest of February 17 was postponed due to the Gypsy King suffering a nasty cut above his eye in training.
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Usyk will have to vacate his IBF belt as the mandatory challenger, Filip Hrgovic, won’t wait for his rematch with Fury, with the Croatian set to take on Daniel Dubois next month
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The winner of Dubois (pictured) or Hrgovic is then expected to take on Anthony Joshua
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‘I don’t think about boxing now, please,’ Uysk said when asked about running it again with Fury.
‘My camp started in September 2023, I worked for nine months. I missed Happy New Year, I missed my son’s birthday, I missed my other son’s birthday, I missed my daughter’s birthday and then the birth of my daughter.
‘I also missed family holidays. I was only focused on this fight, now I’m happy and I want to go back home.’
