Ask most fans who Oleksandr Usyk should fight last, and the answers come quickly: Moses Itauma, or the winner of Fury versus Joshua. Ask Usyk, and the answer is Deontay Wilder. That gap between what supporters want and what the pound-for-pound great appears to be chasing has turned his farewell into a row — and the Usyk Wilder plan sits right at the centre of it.
Usyk wants to close his career against Wilder in the United States, framing the bout as a “last dance”. For a fighter who has beaten everyone put in front of him, the reaction has been strikingly hostile, with many arguing the 39-year-old should sign off against a genuinely dangerous name rather than a former champion widely seen as the softer touch.
The Usyk Wilder plan
Usyk (25-0, 16 KOs) is in talks with Zuffa Boxing for a farewell against Wilder on American soil. “Why not? If Deontay’s team wants it, I do it. Money, business … now we have two options, but what for me is good, we will take,” Usyk told The Athletic. He has already vacated his heavyweight titles rather than defend the WBC belt against mandatory challenger Agit Kabayel, freeing himself from championship obligations and clearing the way to pick a lucrative send-off on his own terms.
Why fans wanted someone else
The frustration is easy to follow. Usyk has already achieved virtually everything the sport can offer him across two divisions, so supporters hoped he would target Itauma or the winner of Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua — a division-defining goodbye against one of the heavyweight scene’s leading names. Instead they get a former WBC champion whose stock has slid a long way. Critics see Wilder as the low-risk option: a huge name, a big payday and, on recent form, a relatively safe night that carries little chance of a career-ending upset. It is a very different destination from Usyk’s earlier next-fight talk, and the sense that a great is choosing commerce over jeopardy is what has stung fans most.
What is left of Wilder’s right hand
Wilder held the WBC title for five years and became one of America’s biggest attractions, largely on the strength of a frightening right hand. Much of that aura has faded after two defeats to Fury and further losses to Joseph Parker and Zhilei Zhang, per Boxing News 24. More telling still is the state of the weapon itself: the power that carried him for years has not looked the same recently, and Wilder, now 40, has spoken openly about problems with his right shoulder. That raises a real question about how much of his best asset remains.
That is the crux of the backlash. A Usyk Wilder fight offers name value and commercial pull but little of the sporting significance fans wanted from the Ukrainian’s goodbye — the former champion’s profile without the danger of a young, live heavyweight. Whether Usyk cares about that, with a career already stacked with everything the sport can offer, may be the only question that decides where his last dance actually takes place.
