Why will the IBF strip Usyk of the heavyweight title?

Even before the fight with Tyson Fury began, the Boxing world was fairly sure that the IBF intended to vacate their title no matter what happened.

The sticking point is that their mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic has been waiting in the wings for nearly two years. The last time a champion gave an IBF challenger a shot at the title was in December 2020, when then-champ Anthony Joshua faced Kubrat Pulev.

Hrgovic is 17-0 and has taken down some big names with wins over Eric Molina and Zhilei Zhang on his resumé. Since stepping aside first over two years ago, the Croat has had stay-busy bouts with Demsey McKean and Mark De Mori, both of whom he dispatched inside the distance. Hrgovic will face Daniel Dubois on the undercard of the Deontay Wilder vs Zhilei Zhang fight on June 1st.

Dubois’ promoter Frank Warren sees this as an IBF eliminator, telling World Boxing News, “Hrgovic and Dubois is a great fight, and the winner of that, I think everybody’s going to be happy with who the winner fights. I’d love to see [Joshua vs Dubois] happen. I’d like to see Daniel come through, I’d love to see an all-Brit affair. Who knows? We’ll see.”

For their part, both the IBF and Hrgovic have been tight-lipped on the subject of the title. Most fans would argue that Usyk should be given some slack to defend his titles against Fury’s rematch before deciding to take their belt off him. But promoters want a champion in their stable and Warren’s Queensberry as well as Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom want to have a shot at being able to get their hands on one, no matter what that means for the sport.

This silence on the part of the IBF seems to confirm the worst fears of fight fans, that the IBF plan to strip their title from Usyk in order to make way for another champion, or should that be “champion,” to emerge. Despite taking the IBF title legitimately from Anthony Joshua, and then offering Joshua an immediate rematch, Oleksandr Usyk is being painted as somehow holding up the division.

If the title is vacated, the IBF and their new title-holder will have to convince fans that their man is actually a champion. Because in the eyes of most of boxing’s faithful, until somebody beats Usyk, he will remain undisputed.