{"id":423667,"date":"2026-01-21T13:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423667\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T13:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T13:26:07","slug":"deontay-wilder-moves-on-from-usyk-to-finalise-major-uk-heavyweight-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/423667\/","title":{"rendered":"Deontay Wilder moves on from Usyk to finalise major UK heavyweight fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It appears that <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/deontay-wilder\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Deontay Wilder<\/a> vs <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/oleksandr-usyk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> may not be happening after all.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/toney-ko-prediction-for-usyk-vs-wilder\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A match-up between Wilder and current heavyweight king Usyk<\/a> looked to be on the cards for 2026, after the Ukrainian revealed his desire to defend his WBC, WBA and IBF titles against \u2018The Bronze Bomber.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Wilder was previously the long-term WBC champion, making 10 defences of his belt between 2015 and 2020, but as of late he has found things difficult, losing four of his last six contests.<\/p>\n<p>It led some fans to voice their concerns over how a clash against Usyk could play out, suggesting that Wilder should win another fight in order to best prepare for a potential meeting with the Ukrainian.<\/p>\n<p>That could now be how things unfold, after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brunchboxing.com\/post\/sources-deontay-wilder-set-to-return-against-chisora-in-april\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brunch Boxing<\/a> first reported Wilder was in talks to face British heavyweight Derek Chisora.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/danrafael.substack.com\/p\/source-deontay-wilder-derek-chisora\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Journalist Dan Rafael reported<\/a> has now followed up with more details.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFormer WBC heavyweight titleholder Deontay Wilder and former title challenger Derek Chisora are finalising a fight that will take place in April in London, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere had been recent conversation that Wilder would challenge lineal\/unified champion Oleksandr Usyk next and the sides had been in contact but the fight has not been made and Wilder instead will fight Chisora.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A fight between \u2018The Bronze Bomber\u2019 and Chisora has been rumoured for some time. The pair took part in a face-off during a boxing event in Dubai in December, and Chisora posted a video on his Instagram on Tuesday evening signing a contract for his next fight.<\/p>\n<p>Chisora is a two-time world title challenger who has won 36 of his 49 professional fights, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/43754219\/derek-chisora-scores-ud-win-otto-wallin-retirement-nears\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">claiming victories over Otto Wallin, Joe Joyce and Gerald Washington in his last three fights.<\/a> He has long talked up his 50th contest and will have a huge reception from the British fight fans, making it clear he plans to retire after the final bell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It appears that Deontay Wilder vs Oleksandr Usyk may not be happening after all. A match-up between Wilder&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-423667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}