JAKARTA The former heavyweight title challenger, Dillian Whyte, hopes Fabio Wardley will have the opportunity to fight Oleksandr Usyk in a mandatory WBO belt fight.
Wardley just surprised Joseph Parker last month to become a mandatory challenger for Usyk's WBO heavyweight title, one of the four main belts owned by the Ukrainian boxer.
Whyte really hopes Usyk doesn't avoid the mandatory duel and at the same time champion Wardley to win so he has the opportunity to become world champion is undisputed in the next heavyweight class.
"Usyk doesn't seem to have run away from any challenge. He has faced all the best fighters," said Whyte, who coached Wardley despite staying active in the heavyweight division, reported by Sky Sport.
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Usyk earned a reputation as one of the best fighters at the moment after he made two undisputed world champions in heavyweight and three overall covered cruiserweight.
He has so far never lost in the professional, including beating the England trio, namely Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Daniel Dubois, twice each after climbing from cruiserweight.
Whyte says that as one of the fighters with big names like Usyk it's rather impossible to refuse a duel with Wardley.
"If he beats Fabio Wardley at the top of the list of everyone he has ever beaten, it would definitely put him as the greatest fighter in 20 years," he said.
Usyk has not yet entered the ring after he won against Dubois in July 2025 at Wembley Stadium to win the undisputed world heavyweight title for the second time.
Previously, he took the status by beating Fury last year, which made him the first fighter to win the heavyweight world undisputed since Lennox Lewis in 1999.
Usyk was supposed to have a mandatory WBO match against Parker, but he asked for an extension of the negotiation time because he was still injured.
The request was later heeded by WBO so Parker decided to risk his chance against Usyk by taking the ring against Wardley.
Usyk will enter the ring against Wardley if he wants to maintain his status as world champion is undisputed. However, he also has the option of emptying the WBO belt and letting the 30-year-old boxer become the real champion.
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