Tyson Fury's Queensberry Promotions stablemate Daniel Dubois could earn a fight with Oleksandr Usyk if an undisputed title bout can't be brought together.
Promoters are keen to push through a fight for all of the heavyweight gold in the first part of next year after countless efforts proving fruitless with various previous champions. But they have a contingency plan in place if that can't happen, which would see Dubois look to unify his WBA 'regular' title with Usyk's 'super' belt.
The young British champion won the belt in a mandatory challenge against Trevor Bryan earlier this year, and defends it tomorrow night on the same card as Fury vs Derek Chisora. He faces Kevin Lerena, but wants to step up to the legitimate world level in 2023 after his first title defence.
"The plan for Daniel, funnily, comes down to Saturday night," George Warren said at yesterday's press conference. "We hope that Tyson comes through that from a Queensberry and Top Rank perspective. And if he does, we are then fully focused, all eyes, on making the undisputed heavyweight championship with Usyk.
"That is the priority and the thing that needs to happen in boxing - not just heavyweight boxing, but in world boxing. That being made will give Daniel, if he comes through, a very difficult fight against a very difficult fighter in Kevin Lerena, then he retains that position. And if we aren't able to deliver Usyk, which by the way I think we will and see no reason why we won't, then Daniel is next in line, he is the mandatory to fight Usyk so long as he comes through Saturday."
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The IBF may disagree with that assessment, having already ordered a bout between Usyk and Filip Hrgovic for their belt that could be a stumbling block to even the Fury fight. Their last mandatory challenge was in December 2020, two fights ago, while the WBO were the most recent to get a mandatory bout when Usyk faced Anthony Joshua and won the belts last year.
Meanwhile, the WBA's position is unknown given that they have two belts at heavyweight, and Dubois has only recently got himself to regular champion status. He was a mandatory challenger in his own right, so it remains to be seen if a bout between he and Usyk can also be forced at this point.
