IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic will be a very interested party in Saturday’s fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois.
Usyk will defend the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO titles against Dubois in Poland.
While Dubois is the mandatory challenger under the WBA, Hrgovic is the IBF’s mandatory.
He believes the winner of the upcoming contest should be ordered to face him next.
“I should be next, yeah, I’m next in line, IBF is next in line. According to all the rules, I should be next. There’s no unification fight, they had all the time in the world to make that unification and they didn’t want to do that. So you vacate the titles or you fight your mandatory, that should be the case,” Hrgovic told Talk Sport.
Usyk is a tremendous favorite to win the fight.
Should Usyk prevail this weekend, he would likely target an undisputed fight with WBC champion Tyson Fury.
Fury is back in October, when he steps in the ring in a non-title fight against former UFC champion Francis Ngannou.
Earlier this year, there were serious discussions to make the Fury vs. Usyk showdown in April, but they were unable to reach an agreement on the financial terms for the rematch.
Hrgovic does not believe Fury wants to make that fight happen – which is why he wants Usyk to satisfy his mandatory obligations.
“They don’t want to do that fight, Fury’s fighting some guy who’s never boxed before, they don’t want to do that. So fight your mandatories, I’m not gonna step aside and I want to get my shot. I deserve it, I work hard, I’ve been in this sport for 17 years and I want to get my chance,” Hrgovic said.