For the past few months, one heavyweight fight has excited every rational fight fan. That fight is a bout between the WBC and lineal heavyweight world champion, Tyson Fury, and the WBA, WBO, and IBF unified world champion Oleksandr Usyk, as a clash between the two would make for the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis. Earlier today, it was reported that Daniel Dubois seems likely to be the next opponent for Usyk, and after that, the hope is that we could see Usyk vs Fury in December 2022, which has been heavily touted as a Saudi Arabia super-fight card. That card is rumored to see Fury versus Usyk and Anthony Joshua versus Deontay Wilder.
In Manteca, California, Janibek Alimkhanuly, made weight for his bout against Steven Butler, which will be his second defense of his WBO middleweight world title. His manager, Egis Klimas, also happens to be Oleksandr Usyk's manager, as well as a manager to many other great fighters like Vasiliy Lomachenko, and Sergey Kovalev. ProBox TV News caught up with Klimas to find out what is next for Usyk's career.
Currently, Daniel Dubois is the number one contender for the WBA heavyweight title, which is held by Oleksandr Usyk and is also Usyk's next mandated defense. It appears with the inability at the current time to unify all the titles with Fury, Usyk's side is now pursuing a title defense in the meantime - with no date as of now.
"Probably next week will be purse bid," said Klimas as he talked exclusively to ProBox TV News when asked about a future date or anything of note around the fight that he could share.
As for Usyk's side, though the negotiations have played out publicly, Klimas was very reasonable in his take on the whole situation. As talks have been ongoing since Usyk defeated Anthony Joshua for the second time on August 20th, 2022. The near nine-month public negotiation process between Usyk and Fury has been par for the course.
"It's boxing, we're not the first ones and we're not the last ones," said Klimas about the public nature of the discussion of talks between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk. "Whatever happened, that is what happened. Nothing much we can do about it. Fury is Fury. He is of a different mentality. We will see if we can bring that fight back by the end of the year."
The major focus for the Usyk side is simple. Usyk is going for legacy, and it appears Fury as he has stated in a few interviews previously is motivated by money and legacy. Thus, a problem as both fighters motivations are not entirely the same.
"That is always a big difference when one side is going for legacy, and one side is going for the money," when asked by ProBox TV News if the two fighters have two different ambitions.