{"id":416676,"date":"2026-02-09T19:41:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416676\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T19:41:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:41:47","slug":"former-heavyweight-champion-says-he-walked-away-from-usyk-fight-i-was-ready-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416676\/","title":{"rendered":"Former heavyweight champion says he walked away from Usyk fight: “I was ready to go”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk had been in talks to face a former world heavyweight champion, only for a prolonged spell of negotiations to ultimately scupper their showdown.<\/p>\n

The three-time, two-division undisputed king has not fought since his fifth-round finish of Daniel Dubois last July, which followed his two points victories over Tyson Fury<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

Having claimed those two scalps, as well as beating Anthony Joshua<\/a> on two occasions, Usyk has firmly cemented himself as the greatest heavyweight and cruiserweight of his generation.<\/p>\n

One man who had hoped to challenge that status, however, is Deontay Wilder<\/a>, who was named by Usyk as a desirable opponent towards the end of last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Bronze Bomber\u2019 comes off a stoppage victory over little-known heavyweight Tyrrell Herndon in June, which followed his defeats against Zhilei Zhang<\/a> and Joseph Parker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His fifth-round stoppage loss to Zhang, in particular, left a sizable impression on the division in 2024, with many calling for the former WBC champion to retire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But since then, Wilder has managed to secure a showdown with fellow veteran Derek Chisora at London\u2019s O2 Arena on April 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This came about after the American\u2019s talks with Usyk, who he was expected to face later this year, had collapsed at the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Fight Hub TV<\/a>, Wilder explained why, instead of challenging for the WBC, IBF and WBA belts, he is now facing Chisora in a non-title fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Derek had been working on a fight for a very long time. Actually, this fight was supposed to have happened back in December.<\/p>\n

With the Usyk situation, it was like, \u2018I\u2019m 40 years old; I\u2019m ready to go. I can\u2019t sit back; I can\u2019t sit around.\u2019<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think they [team Usyk] had a set date, a place where they wanted to go \u2013 that was still lingering around.<\/p>\n

The clock goes like this \u2013 it\u2019s tick-tocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps a clash between Usyk and Wilder could soon be revisited, but only if the 40-year-old successfully takes care of Chisora in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk had been in talks to face a former world heavyweight champion, only for a prolonged spell…\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-416676","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\/416676","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=416676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416676\/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=416676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}