By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk will need to fight Filip Hrgovic in December on the Saudi’s card if WBC champion Tyson Fury chooses not to participate in the undisputed championship against him for that event.
Hrgovic (15-0, 12 KOs) is Usyk’s IBF mandatory is promoted by Hearn. The 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Hrgovic is coming off a highly controversial 12 round unanimous decision win over Zhile Zhang eleven months ago in August 2022 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Many boxing fans saw that as a robbery, with the A-side fighter, the guy signed to Hearn, being given an undeserving victory over Zhang, lighting him up all night with lefts to the head.
Given the controversy over the result of the Zhang-Hrgovic fight, Hearn should have scheduled a rematch, but obviously, he wasn’t going to take that risk due to the high probability that Hrvovic would lose.
Hearn states that he’s heard that Fury will fight an exhibition match next against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. If Fury does that, he won’t be fighting Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) for the Saudi card in December.
Not having Fury on the December card doesn’t change Anthony Joshua’s plans, as he’ll still be fighting Deontay Wilder in that event in the headliner.
If Fury chooses to take part in the Saudi’s event, which doesn’t appear to be happening, he will likely be fighting Usyk on the undercard of Joshua-Wilder.
That would be a bitter pill for Fury to swallow, given that he feels he’s the best fighter in the division, and his fight with Usyk would have all four titles on the line.
With Fury’s ego, it’s possible that he would drag his feet and refuse to fight on the Saudi’s card unless he’s given top billing by fighting in the main event rather than the former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs).
“We understand Tyson Fury is going to fight [Francis] Ngannou in an exhibition. So that rules out the Usyk fight, but our fight [Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder],” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing News about Tyson Fury electing to fight an exhibition match against a non-boxer Ngannou rather than face IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed championship in December in Saudi Arabia.
“Usyk will still fight on the card by all accounts. It looks like Filip Hrgovic probably because he is the mandatory, but it doesn’t affect our fight [Joshua-Wilder] at all.
“If he [Usyk] doesn’t fight an undisputed fight [against Fury], that’s the fight [Hrgovic] he will have to fight, given the rulings from the governing body,” said a testy-looking Hearn.
