Oleksandr Usyk, Filip Hrgovic are waiting for you, says promoter Kalle Sauerland | “He wants everything! » | boxing news
IBF No. 1 ranked heavyweight contender Filip Hrgovic is ready to step in to fight Oleksandr Usyk next.
Usyk, the unified IBF, WBO and WBA champion, was in talks with heavyweight rival and WBC titlist Tyson Fury, but those negotiations fell apart this week.
Hrgovic would be the mandatory challenger for the IBF belt that Usyk holds. His promoter Kalle Sauerland has confirmed that the Croatian candidate is in camp and is ready to fight him now.
“Usyk, Hrgovic is waiting for you, the rest of the belts, he wants them all,” Sauerland said sky sports.
“Not the type to beat around the bush, Filip. He’s been waiting for this move for a long time.”
Hrgovic won an IBF eliminator beating Zhilei Zhang in his last bout. “After all the IBF top 15, I didn’t want to fight him, hats off to Zhang,” Sauerland added. “He’s next to fight Usyk (for the IBF title).
“Who doesn’t think Hrgovic would give any heavyweight a good run for their money?
“I go back to the fact that he stopped David Haye from the David Haye-Tyson Fury fight. He was the one who gave the left hook in fight that took him out of that fight, unfortunately.
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Frazer Clarke says in time he can compete with Filip Hrgovic after watching the Croatian beat Zhang Zhilei
“There’s the leak from the fight with Deontay Wilder,” he continued. “It’s a real back-and-forth. It’s pay-per-view boxing in sparring.
“For people who know their boxing, Hrgovic is obviously a massive, massive fight at heavyweight.”
Given the rotation system operated by the world title sanctioning bodies, the WBA should call its mandatory challenger first. It would be the Briton Daniel Dubois.
Although he was injured in his last fight, a thrilling victory over Kevin Lerena in December, Dubois confirmed yesterday that he is ready to fight and is looking to shock Usyk.
“I can’t speculate on that too much, but we know Filip Hrgovic is the IBF (mandatory), then it’s up to the governing bodies and we’re pushing for our guy. It’s a fight that I think a lot of people want to see,” Sauerland said.
Could Fury still fight Usyk?
Kalle Sauerland still thinks that while Fury vs Usyk might not happen next month, it could still happen later this year.
“I just feel like it could still happen, but okay, it seems not. But they seem to be arguing over a very, very small point of the contract if it’s just the split on the rematch,” Sauerland said. “Maybe they still do.
“It’s unfortunate but I still think we’ll see that fight one day.”
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A heavyweight title clash between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk is over – relive the recent social media war of words between the two as a fight was apparently on the cards
He explained: “The 70/30 (split sack in favor of Fury) I get it. The old fashioned way the fights were set up was, ‘You’re from the UK, you keep UK TV. keep Ukrainian TV. The rest we will divide and we will divide the door. If I calculate it like that, it ends at 70/30. That hasn’t changed over the years.
“They accepted 70/30 (for a first fight) so it’s not a blow to the Usyk team, they are great guys.
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“The sport lives off the big fights that get made. Usually they get made,” he added.
“It’s not pretty. At the same time, boxing delivers these big fights. Half the drama in boxing is that they don’t get made and then get made.
“It’s part of the build. It’s nothing new… Usually they’re made. I always think if it doesn’t happen now, it will happen later this year.
“Also, I’m going to put my big mouth back here, I think Fury vs. (Anthony) Joshua is done before they retire.”
Don’t miss a great night of live action on Sky Sports on Saturday night. Lawrence Okolie against David Light will be followed by Jose Ramirez against Richard Commey
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