{"id":206839,"date":"2025-10-17T15:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206839\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T15:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T15:54:07","slug":"oleksandr-usyk-champion-rules-out-moses-itauma-fight-but-planning-2026-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/206839\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk: Champion rules out Moses Itauma fight but planning 2026 return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk says he will continue to fight for two more years and plans to return to the ring in 2026, but has ruled out a bout with British heavyweight Moses Itauma.<\/p>\n

Usyk, 38, stopped Daniel Dubois at Wembley Stadium in July<\/a> to become a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian, who also previously held all four recognised world titles at cruiserweight, had previously hinted that he would fight only once more before retiring.<\/p>\n

However, the pound-for-pound star appears to have reversed that decision.<\/p>\n

“I’ll fight until I’m 41,” Usyk told the Ready to Fight website. “Then I’ll build a sports academy – I’ll train there and train others.”<\/p>\n

Usyk said he is back in training after being sidelined by a back injury which forced the postponement of a fight with WBO mandatory challenger Joseph Parker.<\/p>\n

He added that, “God willing”, he will return next year but dismissed 20-year-old Chatham fighter Itauma as a potential opponent.<\/p>\n

“No, I won’t fight Itauma,” Usyk said. “He’s young – always teasing me. And he said himself he doesn’t hit grandpas. <\/p>\n

“I can’t say who exactly [I’ll fight next] because negotiations are ongoing. I’d be lying if I gave you a name.”<\/p>\n

Itauma extended his unbeaten record to 13 wins, with 11 knockouts, by stopping former world title challenger Dillian Whyte inside two minutes in August<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The WBA has ordered its secondary champion, Kubrat Pulev, to face Itauma next, although the Bulgarian is keen to defend his belt against Murat Gassiev in Dubai in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk says he will continue to fight for two more years and plans to return to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-206839","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\/206839","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=206839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}