WBO clear way for Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury trilogy fight with ‘special condition’

WBO president Gustavo Olivieri has confirmed to talkSPORT.com that the major sanctioning body will not stand in the way of a trilogy bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.

The WBO are next up in the sanctioning body rotation system to order a mandatory challenger for the winner of the upcoming rematch on December 21 for the WBA, WBC and WBO heavyweight titles.

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As a result, they could order the victor to face their No.1 contender and then proceed to strip the champion of their version of the world title should he refuse the fight.

The IBF exercised their right to do this in June when they ordered Usyk to face IBF interim champion Daniel Dubois.

Usyk was unable to return the call due to his contracted rematch with Fury and so was forced to relinquish the IBF belt.

Dubois was then elevated from interim to full world champion and went on to defend his red and gold strap by knocking out Anthony Joshua in September.

Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh has stated his intentions to make a rubber match between Fury and Usyk if ‘The Gypsy King’ manages to level the scores this weekend.

And the WBO’s newly appointed president, Olivieri, is happy to go along with that plan so long as the second fight merits a trilogy.

“Absolutely. Why would I or the committee prevent the trilogy taking place?” Olivieri told talkSPORT.com of a possible third fight between Usyk and Fury.

“I think that benefits boxing and all of the stakeholders, the fans, the promoters, the sanctioning body, the fighters we at the WBO have a different philosophy, right?

“And I concur with this philosophy: we try to serve what is in the best interest of boxing as far as our rules allow us to…

“In order to leave the door open for a future rematch, we sanctioned the [first] fight with a specific condition whereby the championship committee would reserve its right to order the mandatory when it deemed appropriate.

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“But at the same time, considering there are other rated contenders waiting in line, we sanctioned an interim championship to allow that activity to continue, and you can argue that there should only be one champion and I may agree but that has a flip side.

“If we do a rematch, which is taking place on Saturday, and let’s say something happens that warrants a trilogy.

“In the balance of interest, for what is best for the sport, is it the trilogy or is it ordering a mandatory?

“I think the consensus would be to let the trilogy take place and thereafter you force the mandatory.

“What we did was we sanctioned this fight with the same conditions as the prior one.

“If there is a trilogy, we will certainly allow it to happen. I think it would be a grave injustice from the WBO and me as the acting and newly elected president to prevent a trilogy from happening.”

At present, the WBO’s interim champion is Joseph Parker, who won the belt by beating Zhilei Zhang in March.

However, he won’t be holding onto it for long as he recently agreed to box IBF heavyweight champion Dubois on February 22.

The WBO’s rules state that interim champions cannot unify their belt with a world title from another organisation, so Parker will be stripped of his WBO interim title once the opening bell rings.

“When you have an interim champion, we don’t unify an interim champion with a legitimate champion from another organization, that is our policy,” Olivieri added.

“So what we’ve done in this case is we’ve advised Queensberry Promotions, that we have no objection to Parker fighting for the IBF title.

“None at all. It is a great fight. We have a great relationship with the IBF, I’m very close to its president Darryl Peoples.

“But since we have this policy, he [Parker] would have to relinquish the title.

“So probably what we are going to do, in consultation with the Championship Committee, is allow Joseph as a matter of respect to enter the ring as WBO interim champion and be announced as the champion.

“But once the bell rings, signifying the commencement of the fight, the title should be declared vacant automatically.”

Once Parker has been stripped, the WBO will go about ordering a vacant interim title fight.

At the time of writing, the highest available challengers are No.5 Justis Huni and No.6 Moses Itauma.

No.2 Zhilei Zhang is tied up by a WBC interim title fight with No.4 Agit Kabayel on the same card as Parker vs Dubois while No.3 Martin Bakole has been ordered to box Efe Ajagba in an IBF final eliminator.