Tony Bellew has not held back on his views about a decision that has to be made regarding Oleksandr Usyk’s future as a heavyweight champion.
This past weekend out in Saudi Arabia, Usyk made history as he became the first big man in the four belt era to collect all four of the world titles. He managed to dethrone Tyson Fury and claim his WBC and Lineal titles to add to the IBF, WBO and WBA belts he has owned for three years since taking them off Anthony Joshua.
Usyk’s masterful performance saw him come through some tricky spells in the mid-rounds before he managed to land a huge hook that sent Fury spinning around the ring, only to be held up by the ropes but still be given a standing eight count.
Usyk ran out with a split decision points win to become the undisputed heavyweight world champion six years after he was the undisputed cruiserweight champion, and 12 years after he was the Olympic gold medallist.
It has long been known that a rematch between the two was written into the first fight contract and now talk has turned to that return bout.
Despite the win, it is expected that Usyk will be forced to imminently vacate the IBF title ahead of the Filip Hrgovic vs. Daniel Dubois bout on June 1st, meaning the Ukrainian will be undisputed for less than two weeks.
This news rather upset Bellew who replied in anger at the move which he thinks holds the sport back.
“This is the reason my great sport continues to shoot itself in the foot! Why does he need to vacate? He’s the best heavyweight in world and just showed it! Let him do the rematch or fight the best contender! SIMPLE REALLY! Infuriating the politics of the sport! 😡”
It was then asked of Bellew why Joseph Parker is not the next in line for a world title shot given his great last two wins against Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang.
“Cos apparently beating Jarrell Miller was better 🫣 He’d have to face Hrgovic for it and he’s got a highly disputed decision over Zhang who Parker has beaten! Only Parker should be considered tbh but they shouldn’t be stripping ANYONE imo.”
In defence of the move, some argue that the division has been held up by all the belts being in the possession of one man and should they be splintered it means more people will get a shot. The counter argument to that is that no boxer should be able to claim to be a world titlist without having first beaten the man, which right now is Usyk.
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