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By Barry Holbrook: Oleksandr Usyk has decided to go ahead with his contractual rematch against Anthony Joshua after being given the green light from Ukraine’s Sports Minister to leave the country to begin training.
ESPN’s Mike Coppinger is reporting the news of Usyk being given permission to leave. With that said, we need to take a wait & see approach on this until Usyk is actually out of Ukraine, and on his way to training camp.
Usyk has been defending his country Ukraine for several weeks since the Russian invasion. It would have to be tough on Usyk, 34, to leave Ukraine under the current situation with the war raging on with no conclusion in the foreseeable future.
Last September, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk shocked the world by defeating Joshua by a 12 round unanimous decision in front of a stadium filled with pro-AJ fans at the Tottenham Hotspurs in London.
Usyk came into the fight with Joshua as a significant underdog, but he wound up easily out-boxing the much bigger fighter and coming close to stopping him in the 12th.
“Oleksandr Usyk has received permission from the Ukrainian Sports Minister to leave the country during war and will begin training camp for a summer rematch with Anthony Joshua for the unified heavyweight championship,” said Mike Coppinger.
Despite the above report, Hearn thinks Usyk will opt to stay in Ukraine and fight rather than leaving the country to defend his IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles against Anthony Joshua in late June.
Hearn states that Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) may choose to follow the same path as fellow countryman Vasyl Lomachenko, who decided not to leave Ukraine to face lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. on June 5th in Australia.
Lomachenko decided to stay and fight against the Russian invasion instead of leaving Ukraine to face the four-belt 135-lb champion Kambosos in Melbourne in a stadium fight.
Although Usyk is under contract to face Joshua in a rematch, the circumstances are different, given that his country is in a state of war with Russia, and men aged 18 to 60 are required to stay and fight.
Hearn says he’ll know more about Usyk’s status this week. If Usyk decides to stay in Ukraine, Joshua will take an interim fight in June against possibly Joe Joyce or Otto Wallin. Joyce is the option that Hearn likes the most right now, but Joshua will be the one that will make the decision.
Usyk and Lomachenko were permitted to leave Ukraine by the government last week for them to fight. Initially, it was thought that they would both leave, fight and then return to Ukraine. However, Lomachenko has decided to stay in Ukraine, and as Hearn suspects, Usyk will do the same.
“I think you’ll see AJ in June. A lot depends on Usyk. I believed a couple of days ago, he was actually quite likely to take this fight with AJ,” said Eddie Hearn to TalkSport Boxing.
“You saw Vasyl Lomachenko come out last night and say, ‘I’m not going to fight [George] Kambosos. I’m going to stay in Ukraine.’ Will Usyk follow suit?
“We’re happy to give them the opportunity to be with their families, be with their country, but AJ needs to fight. He’s ready to go in June against Usyk, which is the absolute priority, or against an interim opponent,” said Hearn.
Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk should shed some light on his status today when Hearn speaks with him.
If Usyk decides not to leave the country, Hearn wants to pit Joshua against a southpaw opponent to help prep for an eventual fight. Besides Joyce and Wallin, Hearn says Luis Ortiz is also a possibility.
These are fighters that Joshua has picked out, and he’ll be taking a huge risk in facing one of them. But if Joshua cannot beat heavyweights in this category, he certainly won’t have much chance of defeating Usyk in the rematch.
Hearn hasn’t said what he’d do if Joshua loses his interim fight. Will he retire or continue to press on with his diminishing career and insist on taking the rematch with Usyk?
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