What additional challenges are there on the market for unified two-weight king, present heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk, and what fights, if any, encourage Usyk himself? After having unified the cruiserweight and the heavyweight belts, Usyk has accomplished greater than sufficient to go down as a terrific, and the Ukrainian, who gave a lot weight away in his two fights with Tyson Fury particularly, now has the fitting to battle just about who he needs to battle.
However as we all know, Usyk loves a problem, he thrives on competitors, so don’t anticipate him to have interaction in any simple, or gimmie fights as he winds down, we predict anyway, his profession. How for much longer Usyk continues to battle can also be query.
Eddie Hearn, who noticed his man Anthony Joshua lose twice to Usyk, now says he very a lot likes the thought of reigning IBF cruiserweight champ Jai Opetaia preventing Usyk – both at cruiserweight or up at heavyweight, in all probability the latter. Talking once more with IFL TV, Hearn mentioned that Usyk and Opetatia match up so, so properly and it is a battle he would like to see.
First up, Australian southpaw Opetaia should come by in opposition to unbeaten late substitute challenger David Nyika subsequent week, whereas as Hearn additionally factors out, Opetaia “has to earn his stripes.” However within the not too distant future we may probably see Opetaia problem Usyk.
“Usyk’s an exceptional fighter, he’s an all-time nice. Let’s give him his flowers. And what’s he gonna do now?” Hearn mentioned. “The one battle that I see, I imply, I like Opetaia in opposition to Usyk. I simply assume it’s such type match-up. However Jai’s acquired to earn his stripes as properly for that battle, he’s acquired to win subsequent week after which he’s in all probability acquired to unify in opposition to [Gilberto] Ramirez. After which, when he steps up he’s gonna be capable of compete weight-wise. It’s a terrific battle, however he’s acquired to proceed to construct his profile. However I don’t see numerous fights that genuinely excite me for Usyk. He’s accomplished all of it. Who else is there for him to beat?”
Certainly it’s attention-grabbing who Usyk will battle subsequent, who he will get a buzz out of the thought of going through, if anybody. We may get the Daniel Dubois rematch, if Dubois will get previous Joseph Parker in February, or if Parker wins, would possibly he battle Usyk? However the thought of Opetaia, at the moment 26-0(20) transferring up after cleansing out the 200 pound division after which preventing Usyk is kind of thrilling. However can Opetaia do it, and the way lengthy wouldn’t it take him to unify the cruiserweight division?
Who is aware of what sort of a timeframe Usyk is on so far as winding up his merely nice ring profession. However Usyk in opposition to an unbeaten Opetaia, possibly in Australia, would possibly simply be an attention-grabbing sufficient battle to maintain Usyk within the sport till the tip of 2025, or past.
