{"id":405762,"date":"2026-02-03T14:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/405762\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T14:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:50:07","slug":"usyk-wants-to-face-former-heavyweight-champion-again-it-doesnt-matter-where","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/405762\/","title":{"rendered":"Usyk wants to face former heavyweight champion again: “It doesn’t matter where”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> has revealed he wants to face a familiar foe one more time and is hoping to return to action sooner than expected.<\/p>\n

The bona fide heavyweight king was in negotiations for a clash against former world champion Deontay Wilder<\/a>, only for their matchup to ultimately get abandoned.<\/p>\n

This is because Wilder has instead inked a deal to face British veteran Derek Chisora on April 4<\/a>, headlining a Misfits Pro and Queensberry card at the O2 Arena, London.<\/p>\n

As a result, Usyk has seemingly been left to search for an alternative opponent, hoping to defend his WBC, IBF and WBA titles before long.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian became a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion in July, orchestrating an emphatic fifth-round finish against Daniel Dubois, and has since claimed that he wishes to enter at least two more fights.<\/p>\n

Prior to his stoppage of Dubois, Usyk scored back-to-back points victories over Tyson Fury<\/a> in 2024, cementing himself as the greatest heavyweight of his era.<\/p>\n

And while Fury announced his retirement shortly after their rematch, it was confirmed recently, following a year-long layoff, \u2018The Gypsy King\u2019 will return to face Arslanbek Makhmudov on April 11<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With his old foe announcing his comeback fight, Usyk has told Seconds Out<\/a> that he would welcome a trilogy clash with the 37-year-old while, at the same time, suggesting that he could return to the ring as early as March.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe March, I\u2019m back in the ring.<\/p>\n

I want [trilogy] fight with Tyson Fury, no problem. UK, Saudi Arabia, USA \u2013 doesn\u2019t matter [where it takes place].\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Usyk will, in fact, compete in March, it remains to be seen, but the 39-year-old nonetheless seems intrigued by a possible third encounter with Fury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk has revealed he wants to face a familiar foe one more time and is hoping to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-405762","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\/405762","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=405762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}