Comments Thread For: IBF President Explains The Current Status Of Their Heavyweight Belt

[JeBron Lamez]

Honestly doesn't matter one bit. IBF stripping USYK does not make him no longer undisputed, he is still undisputed and he would be undisputed even if all the organizations stripped him. Until he loses or retires he is hands down the undisputed champ.

It's like when Lennox Lewis defeated Evander Holyfield and immediately lost the WBA belt and later the IBF belt... meant nothing, he was still being introduced as the undisputed heavyweight champ of the world all the way up until he retired after facing Vitali Klitschko.



And to be honest.. I wouldn't be surprised if more organizations strip Usyk since Usyk only fights once a year, and at this point he has earned the right to pick and choose who he wants to face.

Thank you for this beautiful reminder.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

Come on man. Usyk can fight his mandatory now if he wants to keep IBF. What is with all of you...it is simple as that. If Usyk wants rematch he knew few month's a gomwhat wil happen with IBF belt. He is bitching about that. Why are you?
IBF stripping New unified champion...there is no New news in this if it happens.... Why People are shocked here... ??

So you’d rather see Usyk vs Hrgovic than Usyk vs Fury 2?

Why can’t the IBF just use their common sense and keep the belts unified for the good of sport?

What makes Hrgovic even deserving of a shot IYO?

The IBF rules are completely f***ing ****** and completely undermine the legitimacy of the sport. Same thing happened to Fury in 2015 and we ended up with Charles Martin as a Heavyweight champion.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

TBRB still has him behind Usyk, Fury, Joshua, Parker, and Kabayel.

ESPN has him behind Usyk, Fury, Joshua, and Parker.

The Ring has him behind Usyk, Fury, Joshua, Parker, Kabayel, and Zhang.

So it seems like Fury, Joshua, Parker, and Kabayel should all be ahead of him in line for fights if you want to play that game. Hrgovic is still being ranked mostly off the Zhang win, which most people thought he deserved to lose anyway, and Parker has since beaten Zhang and Wilder.

Exactly this…

Hrgovic isn’t even a top 5 guy.

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

So what? You care only for Undisputed. Now no one should fight and have a chance?
I Want all of them to fight each other. Not just to watch next 3 years only Fury, Usyk and Joshua

Why can’t Hrgovic fight Parker or AJ and actually earn a shot. You know, like what fighters had to do several decades ago when boxing was way more popular.

I get the IBF have their rules and fighters will obviously exploit them, I don’t blame Hrgovic in the slightest for doing so. However, it’s bad for the sport and the IBF should be doing more to help boxing.

[famicommander]

Why can’t Hrgovic fight Parker or AJ and actually earn a shot. You know, like what fighters had to do several decades ago when boxing was way more popular.

I get the IBF have their rules and fighters will obviously exploit them, I don’t blame Hrgovic in the slightest for doing so. However, it’s bad for the sport and the IBF should be doing more to help boxing.

Even worse than Hrgovic getting a shot is Dubois. Dubois is ranked even lower than Hrgovic and already had a shot at Usyk. He landed a low blow and lost every second of the fight otherwise and got knocked out by a jab.

So in what universe does a fight between a #5/#6 vs a #8/#10 going by the TBRB/Ring ratings deserve to be a "world championship" fight more than the lineal/TBRB/Ring/WBA/WBC/WBO/IBO champion vs the #1? Usyk is the consensus champion, Fury is the consensus 1, Joshua is the consensus 2, and Parker is the consensus 3. Period.

[James]

Why can’t Hrgovic fight Parker or AJ and actually earn a shot. You know, like what fighters had to do several decades ago when boxing was way more popular.

I get the IBF have their rules and fighters will obviously exploit them, I don’t blame Hrgovic in the slightest for doing so. However, it’s bad for the sport and the IBF should be doing more to help boxing.

He did what IBF told him. As you said you can't blame him. Kalle Sunderland was his promotre and at the beggining of his carrer he said we go IBF way because they have clear rules and se go after IBF belt. So ...

[James]

Why can’t Hrgovic fight Parker or AJ and actually earn a shot. You know, like what fighters had to do several decades ago when boxing was way more popular.

I get the IBF have their rules and fighters will obviously exploit them, I don’t blame Hrgovic in the slightest for doing so. However, it’s bad for the sport and the IBF should be doing more to help boxing.

That is question for Parker, Hrg wanted to fight him. Few time Parker had his chance few. Last time he choose ZZ instead of Hrg.

[BoxOfficer]

That is question for Parker, Hrg wanted to fight him. Few time Parker had his chance few. Last time he choose ZZ instead of Hrg.

True! Parker was one of the many guys who turned down the chance at the final eliminator. Ortiz, Parker, Ruiz, Gassiev, to mention a few. The IBF had to go far down, below their top 10, to find the first guy who accepted (Zhang).

Prior to Zhang though, Tony Yoka accepted (I need to mention that), but Bakole wouldn't allow him; I guess we all know the story behind that.

If boxing fans showed more respect to fighters who came via the final eliminator route, especially through the IBF that seem to give the ranked fighters a chance in a chronological order more often than any other org, maybe fighters will be more inclined to take such fights.

If Ortiz hadn't cooked up some excuse, we would have had Hrgovic/Ortiz; perhaps better than the Zhang fight at the time.

If Ruiz hadn't done the same, we would have had Hrgovic/Ruiz; perhaps better than the Zhang fight at the time.

If Parker hadn't chosen the WBO route, which was last in the rotation order at the time, we would have had Hrgovic/Parker; perhaps better than Hirgovic/Zhang fight at the time.

Got the drift?

Now all I hear is folks talking about EARN as though the subjectiveness of fight scoring isn't subjective enough in our beloved sport, so they introduce yet another subjectivity. Welcome "EARN"!

[BoxOfficer]

More food for thought for the EARN IT brigade: Usyk got his chance at Joshua after two fights in heavyweight. Winterspool or so, and Chisora. I guess that was him "earning" it. Well, breaking news: he got his chance because of RULES.

Being the WBO champ going up, unified champ for that matter, the WBO rules allowed him a first crack at the upper class champ.

Usky of all people know how it is to benefit from the rules. All he can do now is beg for an exception, AGAIN.

[Atypicalbrit]

The thing is the IBF in recent years has tried to be the sanctioning body that stands by their own rules.

How long has the IBF mandatory been outstanding?

Its not fair on Hrgovic to make him have to wait ANOTHER year or more. The man is in his 30s, there's quite a lot of heavyweights who's careers have been on hold because of the belts situation in recent years.

A compromise would be to put the belt on the line for Hrgovic vs Dubois and name Usyk as champion in recess or something and that he can force a match with Hrgovic after the Fury rematch.