Fuss about heavyweight king Oleksandr Usyk: On Thursday, reports were circulating online that the world champion had signed with MMA godfather Dana White’s new boxing league. The Ukrainian’s team reacts.
“Signed”, plus a picture of heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk with the logo of the boxing league “Zuffa Boxing”. Such collages were making the rounds online on (or have been since) Thursday. The supposedly awesome news: Usyk has signed with the new boxing league “Zuffa” run by promoter and MMA boss Dana White.
However, Usyk’s team director Sergey Lapin immediately cleared this up in a social media message. “Friends, reports are circulating in the media claiming that Oleksandr Usyk has allegedly signed a contract with Zuffa Boxing. This information is not true. We ask you to only trust official statements from our team.”
Usyk himself shared the post on “X” – but at the same time made a hint. “I’m not rushing, but I’m preparing for something big,” the 39-year-old wrote.
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Boxing media have been reporting for some time that the heavyweight world champion is negotiating with Zuffa. In keeping with this, the news recently broke that former world champion Andy Ruiz Jr. had signed with Dana White’s boxing league. The American is considered Usyk’s next opponent. However, Ruiz does not yet appear on the list of boxers who have a contract published by Zuffa.
Agit Kabayel affected by Usyk decision
It is clear that Usyk is pushing towards the USA – but nothing came of his intended fight against Deontay Wilder. Ruiz would be a marketable alternative.
If Usyk actually signs with Zuffa, this could affect Germany’s boxing star Agit Kabayel. As WBC interim champion, the 33-year-old is Usyk’s mandatory challenger for the association. The WBC has ordered that Usyk must fight Kabayel after his next fight – a voluntary title defense – if he wants to retain the belt.
Dana White’s goal with Zuffa is to break through the system of the four major world associations. His boxing league will be modeled on the MMA series UFC, of which the American is the boss. In the future, the Zuffa belt should represent the only true world champion in each weight class – the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF associations should disappear according to White’s wishes.
Usyk – the legitimate heavyweight world champion in the associations’ belt salad anyway – would be the king figure for Zuffa to marginalize the three-letter organizations.
Should Usyk avoid Kabayel and relinquish the WBC title, the German would automatically be upgraded from interim to full champion. Germany would then have its first heavyweight world champion at the Green Table since Max Schmeling more than 90 years ago.
