Eddie Hearn says Olekandr Usyk fancies Dereck Chisora fight

By Boxing News - 11/06/2019 - Comments

By Dean Berman: Eddie Hearn says Oleksandr Usyk likes the idea of facing Dereck Chisora while he waits for a world title shot. Former unified cruiserweight champion Usyk (17-0, 13 KOs) is the WBO mandatory for Andy Ruiz Jr., but he’s got wait until he defends against Anthony Joshua in a rematch on December 7th in Saudi Arabia.

Usyk, 32, would obviously like to get a big money fight against Joshua or Ruiz, but if he can get his hands on the WBO title, he’ll be able to fight a unification match against the winner of that fight.

Hearn thinks the Joshua vs. Ruiz rematch winner may vacate the World Boxing Organization title, as they’ve got the IBF mandatory due at the same time.

If the winner of the Joshua-Ruiz fight does vacate straightaway, then there’s a good chance that the WBO will make the Usyk vs. Chisora fight for the vacant title.

Usyk fancies the Chisora fight says Hearn

“Some people are standing by. Usyk is the mandatory for the WBO,” said Hearn to secondsout. “I think he also quite fancies the Chisora fight. We really got to see whether you wait to see what happens or do you fight Chisora, and see what happens as well.

“It’s going to be interesting. If they can’t get the mega-fight, they’ve got to fight each other. You’ve got Hunter-Povetkin in Saudi Arabia. Those are two guys on the verge of fighting for a world championship saying, ‘Let’s just fight each other.’ It’s going to be really interesting for 2020,” said Hearn.

Until Usyk speaks up, you have to take what Hearn says with a grain of sand. Hearn does a lot of talking, but a lot of what he says never transpires. Usyk clearly wants the title shot for the WBO belt. Having to jump through another hoop by facing the 35-year-old Chisora (32-9, 23 KOs) for Usyk, and it’s likely that he won’t want to take the chance.

In Usyk’s recent heavyweight debut against 38-year-old Chazz Witherspoon on October 12, he looked weak, small, slow and beatable. He also marked up easy against a guy that shouldn’t have been able to lay a glove on him. It took seven rounds for Usyk to stop Witherspoon, and this is a fighter that would likely be stopped in one round by Joshua, Ruiz and Deontay Wilder.

Hearn expects Joshua-Ruiz winner to vacate IBF or WBO belt

“Some belt could become vacant,” Hearn said to skysports.com. “Because the IBF and the WBO are both going to order their mandatories after Joshua-Ruiz Jr. Unless a deal can be done with someone, you’ve either got to do that, or vacate. It’s a fight that they could do, potentially even for the WBO world title next year,” Hearn said about the Chisora vs. Usyk fight.

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