Oleksandr Usyk’s reign as undisputed heavyweight champion appears to have come to an end as he gave up the IBF title on Tuesday. That title has now gone to Daniel Dubois, who moved up from interim champion. Dubois’s first task would be to defend the title when he goes up against former heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, in their fixture planned for September 21.
Usyk was the first person to hold all heavyweight titles since 1999, after beating Tyson Fury back in May. It was expected that he would put all belts on the line when they have their rematch in December, but that would not be the case anymore as the IBF title is no longer in his possession.
The Ukrainian broke the news on Tuesday with a video on social media, where he said: “Anthony and Daniel, listen – I know the IBF title is important to you. It is my present to you for September 21.”
The IBF belt had been an issue since the rematch with Fury was announced. This was because Usyk was supposed to face the IBF mandatory challenger as his next opponent. Choosing to move on with the rematch meant he would have to vacate the title. Although he tried to prevent giving up the title by filing for an exception, it seems that did not work out, leading to his video on Tuesday.
Dubois recently became the IBF interim champion after knocking out the former mandatory challenger, Filip Hrgovic, and now, he is the official IBF title holder. Ahead of his fixture with Joshua, the 26-year-old described himself as a “king slayer” who was going to bring Joshua down: “AJ has been the king for a long time, and we all know it, so on the night I need to become a king-slayer. That’s my goal, and that’s the mission at hand. I’m just ready to go.”
Like Dubois, Joshua has also lost to Usyk, in his case, twice. The IBF title was one of the three titles Joshua held two times, which he eventually lost to Usyk. But he has been on a steady rise since then, and it looks like he could become a heavyweight title holder for the third time.
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