{"id":807722,"date":"2026-10-19T16:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T16:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807722\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T16:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T16:28:12","slug":"unbeaten-world-champion-offers-oleksandr-usyk-the-chance-to-win-his-belts-back-at-cruiserweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807722\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbeaten world champion offers Oleksandr Usyk the chance to win his belts back at cruiserweight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oleksandr Usyk<\/a> could be involved in one of the \u201cbiggest fights in cruiserweight history\u201d, just so long as he is willing to drop back down to 200lbs.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old has not fought at the weight since 2018, when he became the undisputed king by dethroning Murat Gassiev with a wide points victory.<\/p>\n

Usyk also defined his cruiserweight reign with a majority decision triumph over Mairis Briedis, before moving up in weight and becoming a two-division world champion.<\/p>\n

He did so by dethroning Anthony Joshua<\/a> in 2021, with the Ukrainian then winning their rematch and eventually facing Tyson Fury<\/a> for all four major heavyweight belts.<\/p>\n

Then, this past June, Usyk made the decision to vacate his titles after having become a two-division undisputed champion and secured a harder-than-expected 11th-round stoppage of former kickboxer Rico Verhoeven.<\/p>\n

Still, though, the decorated southpaw intends to fight for a short while longer and, according to Ring Magazine\u2019s Mike Coppinger, has mentioned a Fury trilogy and David Benavidez clash as possible options<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Last Stand Podcast<\/a>, unified cruiserweight champion Benavidez said he would gladly face Usyk at his current fighting weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point I wanted to make when we\u2019re talking about Usyk is: I don\u2019t know if that would be at heavyweight or cruiserweight. Didn\u2019t Usyk relinquish all his belts?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, it would be a bigger fight at cruiserweight because, once I capture this [WBC] title, that would be three belts [on the line]. It would probably be one of the biggest fights in cruiserweight history.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a potential Usyk showdown could be explored, Benavidez has already committed to facing WBC champion Michal Cieslak in December and verbally agreed to fight Jai Opetaia<\/a> next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Usyk could be involved in one of the \u201cbiggest fights in cruiserweight history\u201d, just so long as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-807722","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\/807722","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=807722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}