Oleksandr Usyk’s team are ‘optimistic’ his heavyweight showdown with Anthony Joshua will be finalized in a matter of days.
The news will come as a huge blow to Dillian Whyte and Andy Ruiz Jr, who both threw their name in the hat to face the unified champion next after his proposed £100million undisputed fight with Tyson Fury collapsed.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn revealed earlier this week that Whyte and Ruiz Jr were under consideration despite the WBO ordering him to fight their mandatory challenger Usyk next.
The two teams were given a deadline of May 31 to begin negotiations before the fight would be decided via purse bids, but Uysk’s promoter revealed they are already in talks and are close to reaching an agreement.
‘We are in the middle of negotiations now and things look optimistic,’ Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk told Sky Sports.
‘As long as I am informed there are no visible obstacles to the deal not to take place, hopefully, it will be completed within the rendered timing.’
Joshua’s fight against former cruiserweight king Usyk is expected to take place in the UK around August time, with Wembley touted as one of the options to host it.
AJ, who holds the WBA, WBO and IBF world heavyweight titles, was supposed to be fighting Fury in Saudi Arabia in early autumn but their Battle of Britain fell through after Deontay Wilder won his legal case at arbitration to get a trilogy fight with the Gypsy King.
Hearn admitted this week Joshua is desperate to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in the early 2000s but his ‘hands are now tied’ due to his mandatory obligations.
‘The fight with Usyk is most likely for us,’ Hearn told Behind The Gloves. ‘We are talking to other people, as well, about other fights.
‘The aim is to be undisputed. All AJ has done is to box off mandatory fights to keep the belt. How much longer does he have to do that?
‘You never get the freedom to do what you want. In an ideal world we’d like to do what Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez has done – have three fights in six months.
‘But it’s about defending the belts. He wants to become undisputed.
‘He doesn’t want to lose the belts but his hands are always tied.’
WBC champion Fury, meanwhile, is preparing to face Wilder for a third time with their clash set for July 24 in Las Vegas.
