Undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Oleksandr Usyk announced on his Instagram that he will be vacating his IBF title. In the video he said “Anthony and Daniel listen I know IBF title important to you tell it my present to you September 21”. Essentially saying the IBF title will be on the line for the rumoured Joshua vs Dubois fight. And this announcement all but confirms that Joshua vs Dubois will be on September 21st for the IBF title.
Implications for Oleksandr Usyk And The Division
Well for a start it means that Usyk vs Fury 2 will not be for undisputed as Usyk has vacated the IBF title. So even if Fury beats Usyk in a rematch he won’t become undisputed. It’s not ideal that the rematch won’t be for undisputed and that Usyk will no longer be undisputed. But regardless everyone still regards Usyk as the best in the division and he’s already beaten the 2 guys who will be fighting for the IBF.
That leads me to the next point that this seemingly confirms AJ vs Dubois for 21st September. This is a banger fight with the young hungry Dubois against an older AJ who seems to have found his fire again. On top of that the fight will be for the IBF title. AJ will either become a 3 time world champion or Dubois will become a world champion for the 1st time.
This means we may see the winner of AJ vs Dubois vs the winner of Usyk vs Fury 2. If Usyk beats Fury again and AJ wins there wouldn’t be much interest. We’ve already seen Usyk box rings around Joshua twice. Also, Usyk also handily beat Dubois before. Usyk may also just retire after the Fury rematch. If Fury wins the rematch then things get more interesting. Fury vs AJ would be huge especially if it’s for undisputed. And if Dubois beats AJ in good fashion Fury vs Dubois is also very big. It wouldn’t be as big as Fury vs AJ but still pretty big.
This could also be the beginning of the belts fracturing again. Usyk may vacate other belts and the winner of Usyk vs Fury 2 may vacate them all and then retire. And if that’s the case we could see another build up to undisputed. If AJ beats Dubois he will certainly aim for other belts. All in all this heats up the division even more and we shall have a new world champion September 21st.
Featured image credit to Embed from Getty Images
