'Filip Hrgovic is not the type to beat round the bush. He's been waiting a long time for this,' says promoter Kalle Sauerland; IBF's top ranked heavyweight contender Hrgovic will have his team lobby for mandatory shot at champion Oleksandr Usyk after the Tyson Fury fight fell through
Friday 24 March 2023 18:35, UK
Filip Hrgovic, the IBF’s No. 1 ranked heavyweight contender is ready to step in to fight Oleksandr Usyk next.
Usyk, the unified IBF, WBO and WBA champion, was in talks to box heavyweight rival and WBC titlist Tyson Fury, but those negotiations collapsed this week.
Hrgovic would be the mandatory challenger for the IBF belt that Usyk holds. His promoter Kalle Sauerland confirmed that the Croatian contender has been in camp and is ready to fight him now.
"Usyk, Hrgovic is waiting for you, the rest of the belts, he wants them all," Sauerland told Sky Sports.
"He's not the type to beat round the bush, Filip. He's been waiting a long time for this shot."
Hrgovic won an IBF eliminator when he beat Zhilei Zhang in his last fight. "After the whole of the IBF top 15 didn't want to fight him, hats off to Zhang," Sauerland added. "He's next in line to fight Usyk [for the IBF title].
"Who doesn't think that Hrgovic would give any heavyweight a right run for his money?
"I'm going back to the fact that he stopped David Haye from taking part in the David Haye-Tyson Fury fight. He was the one who gave the left hook in sparring that took him out of that fight, unfortunately.
"There's the leaked sparring with Deontay Wilder," he continued. "It's a right back and forth. It's pay-per-view boxing in sparring.
"For people who know their boxing Hrgovic is obviously a massive, massive fight at heavyweight."
Given the rotation system operated by the world title sanctioning bodies, the WBA is expected to call their mandatory challenger first. That would be Britain's Daniel Dubois.
Although he was injured in his last fight, an exciting victory over Kevin Lerena in December, Dubois confirmed yesterday that he is ready to fight and looking to shock Usyk.
"I can't speculate too much on that but we know that Filip Hrgovic is the IBF [mandatory], that's then down to the governing bodies and we lobby for our guy. It's a fight that I think a lot of people want to see," Sauerland said.
Kalle Sauerland still believes that while Fury vs Usyk might not be happening next month, it could still take place later this year.
"I've just got this feeling that it might still get done but okay, it appears no. But they seem to be arguing over a very, very small point in the contract if it's just the split on the rematch," Sauerland said. "Maybe they still get it done.
"It's unfortunate but I still think we'll see that fight one day."
He explained: "The 70/30 [purse split in Fury's favour], I get it. The way old school fights got made was: 'You're from the UK, you keep the UK TV. You're from Ukraine, you keep Ukrainian TV. The rest of it we'll split and we'll split the gate.' If I figure it out like that, it ends up at 70/30. That's not changed over the years.
"They accepted 70/30 [for a first fight] so it's not a knock on Team Usyk, they're great guys.
"The sport lives off the big fights being made. Generally they get made," he added.
"It's not a good look. At the same time boxing does deliver those big fights. Half the drama in boxing is them not getting made, then getting made.
"That's part of the build up. It's nothing new… Generally they do get made. I still think if it doesn't get made now, it will get made later this year.
"Also, I'll put my big mouth on here again, I think Fury against [Anthony] Joshua gets made before they retire."
