Joseph Parker willing to fight Oleksandr Usyk for WBO title if vacated

As former champion Joseph Parker looks to recapture heavyweight glory with another title belt, his manager David Higgins tells Sky Sports that Parker is more than willing to take on Oleksandr Usyk for WBO title currently held by Anthony Joshua, should that belt come up for grabs.

Joshua has currently been ordered to make mandatory title defenses against both Kubrat Pulev and Oleksandr Usyk, and if he can’t iron out an agreement with the sanctioning bodies then it’s very possible Joshua will have a decision to make that could force him to leave one of his belts behind. And if Joshua opts to make his IBF mandatory title defense, Usyk will be first in line to vie for the WBO strap, with Parker being the next leading contender.

“There’s talk that Joshua might have to vacate one of the sanctioning bodies.

”If he vacates the WBO, then suddenly you’ve got Usyk mandatory and I think the next available ranked boxer is Joseph Parker.

”You could end up with a situation where you have Usyk fight Parker for the vacant title, which funnily enough is how Joseph became world champion. He fought [Andy] Ruiz for the vacant title. History repeats.”

Higgins goes on to say that another fight Parker was looking towards was against Dereck Chisora, but with Chisora seemingly turning his attention to Usyk himself, he says Chisora has been running from making the bout.

Either way, things in the heavyweight picture should start falling into place within the coming weeks. We shall see...