Oleksandr Usyk’s next heavyweight title defense has been earmarked to take place in Poland this summer. He will have to face England’s Daniel Dubois due to his mandatory status with the WBA.
Ukrainian Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) has seen his homeland ravaged by war, many fleeing citizens have found themselves making a new home in neighbouring Poland. A deadline set by the WBA to negotiate terms has passed, but an extension is expected.
As previously reported on ProBox TV News Usyk’s team are eager to make the heavyweight world title fight in Poland, a nation that currently hosts Ukrainian national football matches and has holds a Ukrainian population of 1,3 million.
Promoter Ben Shalom took his promotional outfit, Boxxer, to the country just weeks ago where Ukrainian Lukasz Rozanski headlined victoriously defeating Alen Babic by a 1st round knockout to clinch the Bridgerweight world title.
ProBox TV News spoke exclusively to Shalom to get his opinion on the fight potentially taking place outside the usual realms.
“The Ukrainians are looking desperately for something to celebrate.” Shalom said. “Oleksandr Usyk is a huge star for them, but obviously they can’t have an event in their country. But round the corner, next door in Poland I think it would sell crazy. He’s a huge star, one that should be celebrated and is a massive ambassador for boxing. I would actually like to see that happen in Poland as [Usyk] is the champion. But let’s see what happens.”
Shalom has no promotional link to either fighters. However, the British promoter has been expanding his territory of late. Boxxer were in Paris to co-promote Tony Yoka Vs Carlos Takam and recently hit Rzeszow for Rozanski Vs Babic.
“We would like to take Boxxer to other countries and broadcast locally.” Shalom explained regarding his European project. “Off the back of the Paris show we think we have a number of French shows next year. It just makes it easy to work with different promoters. We want to get bigger and go to the biggest territories that we possibly can. Boxing is a global sport with no language barrier. For us it is very important for us to be putting on shows all around the world.”
