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If Oleksandr Usyk wants to remain undisputed heavyweight champion, he’ll have to face Joseph Parker in his next fight. For the second time this year, the WBO has ordered Usyk to face Parker, the sanctioning body’s interim champion. The two sides have 30 days to negotiate a fight.
The WBO first ordered Usyk to face Parker in March, but Usyk, who held the WBO, WBA and WBC titles at the time, was able to go ahead with his bout with IBF champion Daniel Dubois to crown an undisputed champion. Usyk crushed Dubois on July 19, scoring a fifth-round knockout.
Parker is the next logical choice for Usyk, regardless of the WBO’s orders. He is on a fantastic run, having defeated Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakole in a fight that came together last minute after Dubois withdrew from a fight with Parker due to injury.
The two top fresh challengers for Usyk are Parker and Agit Kabayel, who is on his own impressive run of victories but doesn’t carry the name value of Parker, nor does he have the same benefit of the WBO’s place in the mandatory challenger rotation.
In an interesting twist, Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season, via Ring Magazine, have said they are not interested in pursuing Usyk vs. Parker. All of Parker’s recent big wins that propelled him to his current status have come on Riyadh Season cards.
Alalshikh recently claimed that Usyk facing 20-year-old Moses Itauma would be “the fight to make.”
Itauma is an exciting heavyweight prospect, but he has never faced anyone at the upper levels of the heavyweight division. Facing Usyk, who is proving to be one of the better all-time fighters, would be a gigantic jump in competition.
Itauma is taking the biggest step up in his career on Aug. 16 when he faces Dillian Whyte.