What additional challenges are there on the market for unified two-weight king, present heavyweight champ Oleksandr Usyk, and what fights, if any, inspire Usyk himself? After having unified the cruiserweight and the heavyweight belts, Usyk has achieved greater than sufficient to go down as a fantastic, and the Ukrainian, who gave a lot weight away in his two fights with Tyson Fury particularly, now has the proper to battle just about who he desires to battle.
However as we all know, Usyk loves a problem, he thrives on competitors, so don’t count on him to interact in any straightforward, or gimmie fights as he winds down, we expect anyway, his profession. How for much longer Usyk continues to battle can also be an excellent query.
Eddie Hearn, who noticed his man Anthony Joshua lose twice to Usyk, now says he very a lot likes the concept of reigning IBF cruiserweight champ Jai Opetaia preventing Usyk – both at cruiserweight or up at heavyweight, in all probability the latter. Talking once more with IFL TV, Hearn stated that Usyk and Opetatia match up so, so nicely and this can be a battle he would like to see.
First up, Australian southpaw Opetaia should come via towards unbeaten late alternative challenger David Nyika subsequent week, whereas as Hearn additionally factors out, Opetaia “has to earn his stripes.” However within the not too distant future we may probably see Opetaia problem Usyk.
“Usyk’s an exceptional fighter, he’s an all-time nice. Let’s give him his flowers. And what’s he gonna do now?” Hearn stated. “The one battle that I see, I imply, I like Opetaia towards Usyk. I simply suppose it’s such an excellent type match-up. However Jai’s obtained to earn his stripes as nicely for that battle, he’s obtained to win subsequent week after which he’s in all probability obtained to unify towards [Gilberto] Ramirez. After which, when he steps up he’s gonna be capable of compete weight-wise. It’s a fantastic battle, however he’s obtained to proceed to construct his profile. However I don’t see plenty of fights that genuinely excite me for Usyk. He’s achieved all of it. Who else is there for him to beat?”
Certainly it’s attention-grabbing who Usyk will battle subsequent, who he will get a buzz out of the concept of dealing with, if anybody. We may get the Daniel Dubois rematch, if Dubois will get previous Joseph Parker in February, or if Parker wins, may he battle Usyk? However the thought of Opetaia, at the moment 26-0(20) shifting up after cleansing out the 200 pound division after which preventing Usyk is kind of thrilling. However can Opetaia do it, and the way lengthy would it not take him to unify the cruiserweight division?
Who is aware of what sort of a time frame Usyk is on so far as winding up his merely nice ring profession. However Usyk towards an unbeaten Opetaia, perhaps in Australia, may simply be an attention-grabbing sufficient battle to maintain Usyk within the sport till the tip of 2025, or past.
