{"id":105282,"date":"2025-08-31T17:23:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T17:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/105282\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T17:23:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T17:23:06","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-called-out-by-the-world-champion-who-is-the-only-one-left-that-can-beat-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/105282\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk Called Out By The World Champion Who Is ‘The Only One Left That Can Beat Him’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The boxing world keenly awaits the next move of heavyweight great Oleksandr Usyk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two-time undisputed heavyweight champion beat Daniel Dubois for the second time in his last fight<\/a>, stopping the IBF champion inside five rounds. It completed a unique trilogy of double wins over \u2018DDD\u2019, Anthony Joshua<\/a> and Tyson Fury<\/a> and has left him with few challenges left in the sport.<\/p>\n

One is WBO mandatory Joseph Parker<\/a>, though Usyk has not yet engaged in discussions to fight the former champion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Young rising star Moses Itauma<\/a> has also been linked, but many believe it is too soon for him to step up, and Fury has called for a trilogy for next April.<\/p>\n

However, another option has emerged, in an interview with Boxing King Media<\/a>, cruiserweight ruler Jai Opetaia has now also thrown his name into the hat.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, I\u2019ve had this goal in my head of boxing undisputed cruiserweight for a long time. I\u2019m chasing undisputed. The only person I would probably go up to heavyweight for is a world title fight or fighting Usyk, They\u2019re the only fights that I would go up to heavyweight for.<\/p>\n

I want to become undisputed, then once I become undisputed champion of the world then I\u2019ll go up to heavyweight. But I\u2019m not going to let these guys rush me into doing things. I\u2019ve still got a lot of time. The fact that I\u2019m getting pressured to fight anyone else but a unification just blows my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the year, Opetai\u2019s promoter Eddie Hearn<\/a> revealed they had a plan to challenge Usyk after clearing out the 200lb division and believes his man is the only one left who can challenge the Ukrainian star<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want Jai to pick up all the belts at cruiserweight to become undisputed and then we want to push him into a fight with Oleksandr Usyk as well to try and become undisputed at the heavyweight division as well. He\u2019s good enough to do it. I believe he\u2019s the only person right now who at cruiserweight or heavyweight who can genuienly give Oleksandr Usyk a real, real fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opetaia is the current IBF champion,<\/a> with a record of 22 KOs from his 28 wins, including solid victories over the likes of Mairis Briedis and Jack Massey, but has long been chasing a unification with WBO and WBA ruler Gilberto Ramirez, who beat Chris Billam-Smith last time out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The boxing world keenly awaits the next move of heavyweight great Oleksandr Usyk. The two-time undisputed heavyweight champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-105282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}