After the fight against Tyson Fury, the IBF decided they want Oleksandr Usyk to instantly defend his belt but the unified champion is appealing to this demand.

Oleksandr Usyk with all the belts

Ukrainian champion Oleksandr Usyk just won the unified Heavyweight championship against Tyson Fury in a historic 12-round fight that he almost ended in the 9th. After his team found out he would likely be stripped of his IBF title, Oleksandr Usyk decided to file an exception on Friday that will help him delay the overduw mandatory title defense. In fact, Usyk only cares about fighting Tyson Fury again after the ‘Gypsy King‘ told reporters he would ask for that immediately and as soon as both fighters recover. The filing of this demand comes also eight days before a fight involving the next contender in line for the title between Filip Hrgovic and Daniel Dubois. That fight is taking place on June 1 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Why is the IBF forcing Usyk’s hand?

Before the fight between Usyk and fury took place, the Ukrainian boxer already knew a decision from the IBF would come and his team was already prepared to make a counter. Speculation over Usyk’s next title defense would happen right after his fight with Fury if he won, but common sense says otherwise. Oleksandr was inside a ring getting punched in the face by Tyson Fury for 12 rounds. Anybody needs several months in orde rto recover from such an endeavor. Amid the IBF’s urgency to keep the division moving forward, it was speculated that the belt would need to be vacated by Usyk because he can’t fight so soon and that would be the belt at stake between Hrgovic and Dubois.

But this appeal from Usyk is well within his right and he has all the advantage to win the case. Once an estimation is made public, the fight between Dubois and Hrgovic will offer the winner a shot at the unified title after Usyk fights fury. Usyk’s main interest is to defend all the belts he maintained and the ones he won after the fight against Fury. But the IBF also has some interesting points to their case and there is still a chance that the belt is vacated by June 1. The case remains open as it’s being investigated.