Oleksandr Usyk (16-0, 12 KOs) has been stripped of another title. WBC Board of Governors voted unanimously to grant Usyk the status of world champion "in recess", which, according to the sanctioning body will allow him to "recover from a recent injury and support him in an attempt to perform in the heavyweight division."
WBC declares that Usyk retain his rights as a world champion. If he ever decides to come back to the cruiserweight, he will be granted with title fight and will meet the current world champion.
In his last fight in November 2018 Usyk knocked out Tony Bellew in the eighth round in the UK. A few months after the fight Usyk announced his decision to move to the heavyweights.
In 2018 Usyk was able to unite all major titles WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF.
After the announcement of his transition to heavyweight, Usyk was already stripped of WBA title that was passed to the mandatory challenger Denis Lebedev.
Usyk was about to debut in the heavyweights last month against the veteran Carlos Takam. But the winner of the Olympic gold medal was injured and withdraw from fight. It is expected that Usyk will debut in the heavyweights before the end of the year.
So far, there's no official information on who will fight for the vacant WBC title, but ESPN columnist Dan Rafael has already said that the belt would be at stake in June 15 fight in Riga, where Krzysztof Głowacki (31-1, 19 KOs) will face Mairis Briedis (25 -1, 18 KOs). WBO interim belt will also be at stake in this meeting.
