Oleksandr Usyk named a string of possible next opponents after knocking out Daniel Dubois on Saturday night, but it appears one man is at the front of the queue.
Usyk (24-0) stopped Dubois (22-3) in the fifth round at Wembley after an entertaining, if quite brief, scrap for the undisputed world heavyweight title.
The Brit started brightly and did manage to impose himself on the unbeaten champion, but Usyk’s class and quality shone through.
Dubois looked to be tiring pretty quickly and the Ukrainian ruthlessly put an end to his night in the fifth, dropping him and then stopping him with a brutal left hook.
It was the second time Usyk has beaten Dubois, while he has also beaten Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua twice as well.
The pound-for-pound, Usyk great also beat Derek Chisora back in 2020, meaning his last opponent who was not a Brit was Chazz Witherspoon in Usyk’s heavyweight debut in 2019.
It now appears that he will take on non-British opponent, though, with New Zealand’s Joseph Parker at the front of the line as the WBO mandatory challenger.
Promoter Frank Warren confirmed to the BBC after Usyk stopped Parker: ‘The WBO I’m sure, well they already have, ordered that as the WBO champion he has to make his mandatory defence against Joe Parker, so it’s Joe Parker’s time.’
Usyk, who now holds the WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO heavyweight straps seemed less clear about his immediate future, suggesting he could meet former foes yet again.
‘Maybe it’s Tyson Fury. Maybe we have three options,’ he said. ‘Derek Chisora and Anthony Joshua. Maybe Joseph Parker. Listen I cannot now say because I want to [go] back home.’
He added: ‘Nothing is next. It’s enough, next, I don’t know. I want to rest. My family, my wife, my children, I want to rest now. Two or three months, I want to just rest.’
Parker (36-3) has won his last six fights , with impressive victories over Deontay Wilder, Zhilei Zhang and Martin Bakolie putting him in position to challenge the undisputed heavyweight king.
The 33-year-old has been world champion before, winning the WBO strap in 2016 when he beat Andy Ruiz, before losing it to Joshua in Cardiff in March 2018.
He was in attendance to watch Usyk remain at the top of the heavyweight pile but was clear that he wants the next shot at the champ.
‘There’s always respect between fighters but I do want what he has,’ Parker told the BBC.
‘He looked incredible tonight. Power aggression, punching with bad intentions. Daniel put up a great fight from the beginning, it was back and forth, but in the end Usyk broke him down systematically and got him out of there.