{"id":393130,"date":"2026-01-27T12:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393130\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T12:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T12:36:07","slug":"carl-froch-names-the-powerful-heavyweight-that-oleksandr-usyk-should-face-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393130\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Froch names the ‘powerful’ heavyweight that Oleksandr Usyk should face next"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> has been linked to a host of heavyweights for his first outing of 2026. British boxing icon Carl Froch has named the man he thinks the unified heavyweight ruler should take on next.<\/p>\n

Usyk had been expected by some to retire after defeating Daniel Dubois in their July rematch to become the first two-time undisputed heavyweight world champion since Muhammad Ali.<\/p>\n

However, the undefeated Ukrainian instead revealed plans to fight until he is 41 years old and then open up a sports academy in his home nation. In the same discussion, he called for a clash with former WBC champion Deontay Wilder.<\/p>\n

Despite many fans believing that a fight with \u2018The Bronze Bomber\u2019 had been agreed, the Alabama-born knockout artist is understood to have signed to take on Derek Chisora in London this April, leaving Usyk without an opponent.<\/p>\n

Now, Andy Ruiz Jr. is believed to be in contention for a title challenge<\/a>, even though the Californian has not won a professional contest since 2022, whilst Germany\u2019s Agit Kabayel also hopes to land a shot at the heavyweight throne.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Coin Poker<\/a>, Froch revealed that he would prefer Usyk to take on 21-year-old Moses Itauma, who is deemed to be the hottest prospect in the division.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to see Moses Itauma in with Usyk. I\u2019m a massive Usyk fan. But I\u2019d love to see a young, fresh, dynamic, powerful fighter like him against someone like Usyk, just to see. It gives Moses Itauma a chance to go in there and do the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Itauma had been scheduled to face Michigan\u2019s Jermaine Franklin Jr. last Saturday, but the youngster suffered a torn bicep 11 days before their battle, with the entirety of that card being pushed back to Saturday, March 28, as a result<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk has been linked to a host of heavyweights for his first outing of 2026. British boxing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-393130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393130","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=393130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}