By Charles Brun: In a bid of bad news, Oleksandr Usyk has suffered a bicep injury and will need to postpone his May 25 fight at heavyweight against former world title challenger Carlos Takam on DAZN from the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie hearn says an announcement will be made shortly about the new date for the Usyk-Takam fight.
Hearn isn’t saying whether the May 25th fight card will still take place or not. On the May 25th undercard, lightweight Devin Haney is scheduled to face Antonio Moran, heavyweight Michael Hunter is in action against TBA, and heavyweight Filip Hrgovic is facing Gregory Corbin. Hearn could always move the Haney vs. Moran fight into the main event. The card might not sell a lot of tickets, but at least it could still take place. Takam vs. Michael Hunter would be a good fight for the main event on the May 25th card. Hearn likely wouldn’t want to have Hrgovic face Takam, because that’s a risky fight for the young Hrgovic to be taking at this early stage of his pro career. Although Takam isn’t the same fighter he was five years ago when he beat Tony Thompson in 2014, he still has a high work rate and he punches hard.
UPDATE 📰 Due to a bicep injury, @usykaa has been forced to postpone his heavyweight debut against Carlos Takam, scheduled for May 25. An announcement regarding our Maryland show will be made shortly. #UsykTakam @DAZN_USA
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) May 7, 2019
Hopefully, Usyk will be able to make a fast recovery from the bicep injury, and can return to the ring to face the hard punching 6’1 1/2″ Takam.
Usyk (16-0, 12 KOs) is looking to make his mark in the heavyweight division after unifying the cruiserweight division in 2018. Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn has found a good test for Usyk in 38-year-old Takam (36-5-1, 28 KOs) to face his first fight. Takam recently unsuccessfully challenged IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in October 2017 in Cardiff, Wales. Takam gave Joshua a good fight for the first nine rounds until he was stopped in the 10th.
Usyk recently defeated Tony Bellew by an eighth round knockout on Sky last November. Before that, Usyk defeated Murat Gassiev and Mairis Briedis. 2018 was an excellent year for Usyk.
Earlier on Tuesday, the World Boxing Council announced that they’ve ordered #1 WBC Luke Campbell to face WBA/WBO lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko for the vacant WBC 135-pound title that was vacated last month by Mikey Garcia. Hearn wanted Campbell to face #3 WBC Devin Haney for the vacant WBC title, but Lomachenko petitioned to the WBC to be allowed to fight Campbell for the vacant belt. This is something that sanctioning bodies rarely do in allowing other champions to fight for vacant titles, but the WBC made an exception, so now Campbell will need to fight the highly talented Lomachenko for the WBC belt instead of Haney or #2 WBC Zaur Abdullaev.