Usyk eyes one last blockbuster fight

Fury trilogy and Benavidez bout emerge as potential options

Oleksandr Usyk is probably the best heavyweight of his generation. In boxing, world championship belts actually change hands relatively often, and long reigns are rather rare. The Ukrainian, however, has proven the exact opposite and shown that it’s entirely possible to hold multiple titles for a very long time. He only lost them because he decided to voluntarily relinquish all his titles. Now Oleksandr Usyk is facing the final stage of his career. After relinquishing all his titles, he has announced that he will fight one more bout in which he can choose his opponent himself. According to Mike Coppinger of The Ring, he intentionally relinquished his titles to free himself from all the boxing organizations so he could now fight one more big bout.

"There’s a good reason Oleksandr Usyk vacated his four heavyweight titles, and that’s because he is big-game hunting as he enters his age-41 campaign. A trilogy with Tyson Fury (if he beats AJ) and David Benavidez are seen as viable options for the @ringmagazine heavyweight champ"

This leaves two very interesting options on the table.

However, Tyson Fury has already been defeated twice by Oleksandr Usyk. The question is whether it would still be such an interesting matchup. Viewership numbers would certainly be enormous regardless, but from a sporting perspective, the question is whether the fight would simply be a repeat of the last two.

David Benavidez, on the other hand, would be a completely different challenge. He’s significantly younger and constantly puts pressure on his opponents. With his skills, he might actually pose a real challenge for Oleksandr Usyk. Which matchup do you think would be more interesting? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.