Manchester March Matchroom Madness: Chisora vs. Usyk on Eddie Hearn’s 2020 Table
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom boxing has now proposed ex-World Cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk fight heavyweight contender Dereck Chisora on March 7, 2020, in Manchester Arena, United Kingdom. The southpaw Usyk, 17-0 with 13 knockouts, Kiev, Ukraine, stopped late substitute Chazz Witherspoon in seven rounds last October in his heavyweight debut.
Usyk belongs to Matchroom Boxing, and if the World Boxing Organization heavyweight title belt is sprung loose due to an International Boxing Federation match between Anthony Joshua and Kubrat Pulev, Usyk would probably be fighting fellow Matchroom Boxing fighter Joseph Parker next for the vacant WBO title. Meanwhile, Dillian Whyte, the interim WBC heavyweight titleholder, continues to get passed over by the IBF and WBO, and might be better off fighting the winner of Deontay Wilder versus Tyson Fury II World Boxing Heavyweight title instead. Chisora, 32-9 with 23 knockouts, Finchley, London, United Kingdom, a winner of three fights in a row, has nothing to lose by taking the Usyk fight on DAZN, and perhaps getting lucky, as Usyk lacks hardcore heavyweight experience.
Speaking on iFL Television, promoter Eddie Hearn highlighted the current confusion of the situation in the heavyweight division currently confounding his table. “For Derek Chisora, the plan is to fight Oleksandr Usyk. At the moment the WBO is saying Usyk is the mandatory for Anthony Joshua. The IBF is saying Pulev is. I’m saying, ‘guys, there has to be an order here. All I want to know is, ‘Guys, you need to tell us who’s first?’ My conversation with Usyk is if we’re told the WBO is first (then) we will fight you. If we’re not, then the Chisora fight is there, and then you fight the winner of Joshua versus Pulev.”
All of the bicker banter brouhahas has led to even more confusion as to the heavyweight who is going to fight who, for which world title belt, or not, when, where, promoted by whom, and how much money is at stake, and on what televised network. Jarrell Miller and Dillian Whyte are the two top heavyweights left out in the fog, and Daniel Dubois, Joe Joyce, Michael Hunter, Alexander Povetkin and Felip Hrgovic are among the heavyweights still knocking at the door for a world titular opportunity in 2020. There are others.
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