Oleksandr Usyk reign of undisputed heavyweight chanpion of the world is about to come to a abrupt end. The IBF will be stripping him of his belt. By Usyk deciding to opt in for his rematch with Tyson Fury is the reason for him having to vacate the IBF belt. Overdue mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic will finally get his shot at the belt. June 1st, Filip Hrgovic vs Daniel Dubois in Riyadh, Saudi Arabi will be for the IBF belt. Or is that actually set in stone?
Not so fast!
International Boxing Federation President Daryl Peoples said chimed on this matter
“The rule is, you cannot have a clause in your contract that guarantees you a return bout (rematch) that will interfere with your mandatory,” Peoples said. “It’s not a secret among promoters. Everyone, more or less, knows the consequences of having those clauses. We’ve been down this road before.”
Before committing to such a clause, promoters, managers and fighters obviously weigh the impact of losing the belt versus the purse money that can be earned for a rematch of this magnitude.
In acknowledging that’s likely true in the case of Usyk-Fury, Peoples said.
“As far as the IBF rules go, any reigning champion is going to be able to ask for an exception,” Peoples revealed. “Any reigning champion can ask for an exception to any IBF rule.” He was asked: Usyk can ask the IBF to sanction the rematch and keep it an undisputed affair again? “They have the right to,” Peoples said. Why hasn’t he? “I don’t know,” Peoples answered. So is Hrgovic-Dubois going to be an IBF title fight, for certain?
“I don’t know,” Peoples said. “Right now, Hrgovic-Dubois is not for any title. At this point, I’m sure there’s people making decisions behind the scenes before they approach me about anything.”
So what now?
With Peoples bringing way more clarity to a situation to where everyone is saying that Usyk will indeed vacate the IBF belt. At this point we simply don’t know yet because Usyk’s camp has not filed the exception yet. Once that becomes clear we will give you an update.
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Robert LaMar is a writer for Dice City Sports. You can follow him on X via @RobertLaMar26
