Oleksandr Usyk: WBO orders heavyweight champion to face Joseph Parker next | Boxing News

Heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk has been ordered by the WBO to begin negotiations for a mandatory title defence against Joseph Parker.

Parker is the WBO interim champion.

Usyk and Parker have 30 days to reach an agreement for the ordered mandatory defence, otherwise the WBO will order purse bid proceedings.

Parker’s promoter David Higgins told Sky Sports: “We have no idea whether or not it will happen next.

“But I can tell you this. I’ve spoken to Joseph Parker today and he would love to fight for a world title. He will fight anyone, anywhere for a world title.

“That’s his goal, to fight for a world title. Joseph is patiently waiting, keeping fit, and if an opportunity comes to fight for a title, he would love to grab it.

“We’d take it in a heartbeat.”

In a notice published on the WBO’s website on Thursday morning, negotiations for the Usyk-Parker bout were ordered in an email to the respective fighter’s promoters by the organisation’s chairman and founder Luis Batista Salas.

“Please be advised that the WBO World Championship Committee is hereby ordering the commencement of negotiations between to discharge the WBO mandatory championship obligation in the heavyweight division,” the order said.

“By virtue of this order, the WBO Interim Championship shall be terminated expeditiously in compliance with our institutional policy of only one world champion per weight class.

“The parties have 30 days to reach terms. Failure to do so will result in this committee ordering purse bid proceedings in accordance with WBO regulations of World Championship Contests.”

What’s the latest in talks for Usyk vs Dubois?

Usyk, who also holds the WBA and WBC belts, has been strongly linked with a undisputed title fight against IBF champion Daniel Dubois, with talks already taking place.

Sky Sports reported on Wednesday that the blockbuster Usyk-Dubois could take place at Wembley Stadium.

Alexander Krassyuk, Usyk’s Promoter, Told Sky Sports: “We are now working on this fight (Usyk vs Dubois II), Wembley as one of the options.”

Usyk defeated Tyson Fury in May of last year to become boxing’s first undisputed heavyweight world champion in 25 years, the first since Lennox Lewis and the first of the four-belt era.

But his commitment to a rematch with Fury meant he could not make a mandatory defence of the IBF title against Britain’s Dubois.

That saw him vacate the belt and Dubois was upgraded from IBF Interim titlist to full world champion.

Dubois defended that title when he knocked out former champion Anthony Joshua in front of a sold-out Wembley Stadium in September. In December the IBF holder was ringside to see Usyk defend his unified WBC, WBO and WBA belts when he outscored Fury in their rematch.

After the result was announced, Dubois stormed into the ring to demand his own fight with Usyk.

Dubois was due to make a defence of his IBF title against Joseph Parker in February, but an illness forced him to withdraw from that bout.

But that would have been a voluntary defence and there are no impediments to him going straight into an undisputed championship fight.