In May, Oleksandr Usyk made boxing history by defeating Tyson Fury via a 12-round split decision, making Usyk the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the world since the great Lennox Lewis last won the heavyweight title in April 2000.
Lennox Lewis achieved the undisputed honor when he defeated Evander Holyfield in November 1999. Unfortunately, Lennox never got the chance to defend his undisputed title, as the WBA stripped Lennox of his title after he did not sign on to face mandatory challenger No. 1, John “The Quiet Man” Lewis.
Lewis instead defended his remaining titles against Michael Grant, who was widely considered the most worthy challenger at the time, while Lewis was not considered a worthy challenger, despite being highly ranked by the WBA, resulting in Lennox Lewis never getting the opportunity to defend his undisputed world heavyweight championship.
The current situation seems like history repeating itself, with the IBF insisting that they must fulfill their mandatory obligations, just like the WBA's John Ruiz situation back then. Fans have been waiting for nearly 25 years to finally see another undisputed world heavyweight champion.
But even before Usyk and Tyson Fury were scheduled to rematch in February, the IBF had already tried to preemptively spoil the party by insisting that the winner of Usyk vs. Fury must fight in a mandatory bout. The IBF made this public despite already knowing that Usyk and Fury had a two-way rematch clause that was almost certain to be triggered anyway.
Usyk ended up relinquishing the IBF belt just over a month after he held the title undefeated, meaning that technically his reign lasted just over 30 days. As a result, Daniel Dubois was promoted from so-called “interim IBF champion” to the real deal. Dubois will defend his title against former two-time unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
The showdown between Dubois and Joshua will take place at Wembley Stadium on September 21 in a championship bout that will be broadcast on DAZN PPV.
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In this episode of Rummy's Corner, we take a quick look back at how the last two unbeaten heavyweight world champions, Lennox Lewis and Oleksandr Usyk, fell from grace. Watch the video and hear one man's opinion. This is Rummy's Corner (produced and narrated by Geoffrey Ciani).
