One of the possible future scenarios in the heavyweight division could be a fight Philip Hrgovic (15-0, 12 KOs) against Andy Ruiz Jr. (35-2, 22 KOs) for the world heavyweight title. At the same time, this should not affect the complete unification of the royal weight category and the fight between Tyson Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) and Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs). Fury is the WBC champion, and Usyk has IBF, WBA and WBO belts in his collection.
The Croatian, who defeated Zhang Zhilei on points in August, acquired the status of an official contender according to the International Boxing Federation. The IBF management recently demanded a mandatory defense from Usyk, but after a while changed their mind and allowed the full unification of all titles, and so that Hrgovic would not wait long, the IBF offers him a fight for an interim title. Ruiz received the same offer as the next boxer in their ranking.
Ruiz Jr. had already had another title option before, when the WBC named him a participant in the final eliminator with Deontay Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs).
“We are currently in preliminary negotiations for such a fight,” said Eddie Hearn, who works with Hrgovic.
