Immediately following the news of undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk being ordered to make a mandatory defense of his WBO title against Joseph Parker, Parker’s promoter David Higgins spoke to Sky Sports and says they’re keeping their fingers crossed that Usyk will go forward with the fight rather than allow the belts to be fractured by looking elsewhere, causing him to be stripped.
“Joseph is hoping and praying that Usyk will want to defend the honour of undisputed champion, which not many people in recent times have achieved,” Higgins said. “We haven’t given up on Usyk fighting Joseph next,” he added. “A lot of people are suggesting that he won’t but for me that is a bit of a soft outcome if he doesn’t. We are hopeful of fighting Usyk and we are hopeful of doing it before the end of the year.”
Usyk is just recently coming off a knockout win over Daniel Dubois in a second successful bid at going undisputed at heavyweight. Of course, with all those belts there are a number of obligations, and being the top dog in the division means Usyk has a lot of options for other fights that could be much more lucrative than a Parker fight.
It’s probably too soon to know exactly how this will pan out, but it shouldn’t be long before we get a clearer picture as Usyk will either have to negotiate a Parker fight fairly soon otherwise he’ll likely be stripped of his WBO belt.
