Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn chats a bit with Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV to talk about the future for Oleksandr Usyk with recent talk of a potential fight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua being in the works. Hearn says he’ll make an offer to continue working with Usyk going forward but isn’t sure Usyk will be fighting for much longer, as he expects Usyk to sit out and wait for an undisputed title fight before ultimately calling it quits.
Hearn on Usyk’s contract status
“He has no contract with anyone at the moment. So he’s sitting there waiting for an undisputed fight in the Middle East which I think is slated to happen in the spring of next year. The Saudis wanted to make that fight happen for December, so that’s when Fury was supposed to be fighting in December, but then Usyk wasn’t ready.”
On his intentions to re-sign Usyk
“I think we’ve had a great run. I can’t remember how many fights we’ve done together — seven fights, six fights — made him a huge amount of money. He’s been brilliant. I think this still coming up with the Saudis, if that happens with undisputed — in the last fight they controlled the rights for that fight, and if they do that again it’s kind of hard to bring value outside of almost representing you, if that makes sense.
“So he’s in a good position. Alex Krassyuk, Egis Klimas, good team of people around him, so I’m sure he’ll wait and rest with his family and see what’s next.”
On who he could see Usyk returning against if not in an undisputed match
“I don’t know. I don’t think he would. I don’t see Usyk as someone who’s gonna go on for another five years, fighting every challenger in the division. Like, he was the undisputed cruiserweight world champion, he’s the unified heavyweight world champion. If he fights for undisputed and wins, he the undisputed heavyweight world champion and I think he’s also no spring chicken.
“So I’m only speaking as a fan, I haven’t really had these conversations with him, but I don’t think he fights much beyond that undisputed fight if he wins because he’s kinda completed boxing. The problem is once you’ve earned that level of money, how do you drop back down to a virtually small percent of that money to take on a mandatory or to take on a young, hungry voluntary defense when you don’t really need to?”