IBF Mandatory Filip Hrgovic Not Interested In Stepping Aside for Usyk
When the boxing community wakes up and takes a sip of their coffee, they will feel another kick in the gut from the boxing gods. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn revealed his fighter, IBF heavyweight mandatory Filip “El Animal” Hrgovic (15-0, 12KO), has been ordered next for unified champion Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13KO). This pushes back undisputed with WBC champion Tyson Fury (32-0-1, 23KO) even further into 2023.
THE HISTORY OF HRGOVIC MANDATORY WOES
El Animal has been chilling in the mandatory position for quite some time. In 2021, the IBF ordered Hrgovic to fight Michael Hunter in an eliminator. Both teams were unable to reach an agreement, sending the fight to a purse bid. Hearn won the right to host the fight. However, Hunter pulled out of the contest. The woes to fight for the eliminator continued into 2022. Former WBO champion Joseph Parker and two-time title challenger Luis Ortiz either turned down the fight or did not want to negotiate.
On August 20, Hrgovic fought top contender Zhilei Zhang in the eliminator. El Animal was severely tested and dug deep to win the seesaw, all-out war via unanimous decision.
TEAM HRGOVIC WANTS THE TITLE SHOT
During an interview with IFL TV, Hearn explained the situation and why the ordering by the IBF will interrupt the undisputed showdown.
“I already spoke to some people involved in that fight who are obviously quite upset that it’s going to stop Fury/Uysk for now. But at the same time, it’s nothing to do with me. We represent Filip Hrgovic.
We don’t represent Tyson Fury or Usyk at the moment, and we’ve got a job to do for Filip Hrgovic […] We’ve said we are not willing to negotiate; this is a request of the team and [they] want to have immediate purse bids.
That’s within the rules of the IBF and that means you can not get an exception. So the only way you can get an exception is if Filip Hrgovic says he’s willing to give an exception, and he doesn’t want to give an exception because he wants to fight for the world title.”
THE IBF DOES NOT PLAY AROUND WITH MANDATORY
The IBF is famous for following its rules of enforcing mandatories. It is rare they forgo mandatory ordering to allow fights to take place. One incident that comes to mind is when they allowed unified junior welterweight champion Julius Indongo to fight unified champion Terence Crawford for undisputed in 2017.
After dealing with bad news lately on big fights not happening in 2022, this news is very disappointing to the fans going into 2023.
By: Garrisson Bland
