BoxRec

Shortly after, the IBF Board of Directors was advised that the issue had been resolved between the parties with the following conditions:

1. If Wladimir Klitschko is unavailable for the rematch on October 28, 2017, the fight shall be staged no later than December 2, 2017.

2. Kubrat Pulev is the next in line to fight the winner after the rematch. In the event the rematch does not occur prior to December 2, 2017 Anthony Joshua is to honor his mandatory commitment and fight Kubrat Pulev.

3. After the rematch the IBF will not consider a request for unification from the winner.

4. There shall be no further exceptions considered by the IBF regarding Anthony Joshua, or Wladimir Klitschko should he win the bout, prior to the completion of the mandatory bout with Kubrat Pulev.

I think that the winner of the Joshua-Klitschko rematch would simply be delaying the inevitable, because they’d likely lose one or possibly both the IBF or the WBA belts immediately.

So if the winner of the Joshua-Klitschko rematch decides to fight Kubrat Pulev, then they’d lose the WBA strap, but they’d lose the IBF belt if they attempted to retain their WBA title by facing Luis Ortiz instead.

Personally-speaking, Joshua and Klitschko would both be far better off financially if they engaged in a non-title contest instead of paying a combined total of 6% of their fight purses to the IBF & the WBA.

On this occasion, I feel that Anthony Joshua & Wladimir Klitschko are far “bigger” than the IBF & the WBA, so they don’t need to hold these belts to legitimise their status of being classed amongst the top-three heavyweights in the division.

I’d love to see a round-robin tournament whereby Fury, Klitschko & Joshua engage in a series of non-title bout trilogies, whereby none of the four main governing bodies receive sanctioning fees and are utterly powerless to impose their demands/deadlines.