{"id":478699,"date":"2026-02-16T15:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/478699\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T15:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:09:07","slug":"usyk-fury-and-wilder-all-named-as-targets-for-dana-whites-first-heavyweight-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/478699\/","title":{"rendered":"Usyk, Fury and Wilder all named as targets for Dana White’s first heavyweight winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder were all name-checked this weekend by a heavyweight who believes he is a key part in the sport\u2019s \u2018new chapter.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dana White\u2019s Zuffa Boxing staged its third fight night in less than a month this past weekend at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, a card topped by heavyweights Charles Martin and Efe Ajagba.<\/p>\n

Ajagba \u2013 a strong favourite \u2013 put former world champion Martin down in rounds three and four before referee Thomas Taylor stepped in to call a halt to the action.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking at the post-fight press conference, the 31-year-old from Nigeria said he wants \u2018top ten\u2019 names next.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter. Usyk, Tyson Fury, Wilder \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter to me. I\u2019m willing to fight anybody in the top ten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ajagba \u2013 who bounced back from a 2021 loss to Frank Sanchez with five wins before a contentious draw with Martin Bakole last year \u2013 being active is a good addition to the scene, but the real intrigue lies in whether Zuffa can deliver on his ambition.<\/p>\n

White has made it clear that his goal is to make a Zuffa belt be the top prize in the sport, showing little interest in working with the four major sanctioning bodies unless necessary. Usyk currently holds three of those titles \u2013 the WBC, WBA and IBF \u2013 though his next move in unclear.<\/p>\n

Fury makes a comeback in April against Arslanbek Makhmudov and has sights set on a trilogy with the Ukrainian or a shot at WBO champion Fabio Wardley. Wilder has also named Usyk as his ideal opponent, but must get through a clash with Derek Chisora first.<\/p>\n

As such, Ajagba may face a lesser name for the inagrual Zuffa heavyweight championship, something Jai Opetaia will do in the cruiserweight division next month.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder were all name-checked this weekend by a heavyweight who believes he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-478699","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\/478699","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=478699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}