Heavyweight Humdinger Alert

We've got a genuine heavyweight humdinger happening on October 25 in London, where Interim world champions Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley will go up against each other for the right to fight undisputed king Oleksandr Usyk.

The o2 will witness something very special on the Saturday night when two form horses of the division collide and, really and truly, this sort of fight is as good as it can get outside of the champion making a tasty defence.

We vowed to keep the heavyweight division on charge and operating at full power and we are keeping our promise.

Both Joseph and Fabio could have sat tight, considering their respective positions, and waited for their big shot. Fair play to them because they were having none of that.

Big Joe has probably got the most to lose because he, as WBO Interim champ, is the next cab off the rank because the rotation system for allocating challengers to an undisputed champion determines that the next one will be put forward by them.

So Fabio, with his WBA Interim hat on, is effectively attempting to take a shortcut and seize Joe’s spot.

The reality is, with Usyk holding four belts and probably only fighting twice a year, that those at the back end of the rotation system will have to be patient. That is just the way it is.

I think we all see the value of having one King of the heavyweights and I believe I can confidently state that Joe, Fabio, Agit Kabayel, Lawrence Okolie and others want to fight the champion and not feed off the scraps of vacant titles.

The four belts residing in one Ukrainian household does hold things up a bit when it comes to keeping the division moving, but this needn’t be a problem if the leading contenders are prepared to fight each other and create numerous major heavyweight events for us all to enjoy.

Both Joe and Fabio, of course, are with us at Queensberry, so I am not going to spend too much time figuring out who I think will prevail on the night or nailing my colours to anyone’s mast.

What I will say is that I can easily imagine a way for either man to win. Let’s be honest, if Fabio lands flush on anyone they are in a big bit of bother. He did seem to be feeling a bit sorry for himself against Justis Huni and look what happened there.

Joe possesses both quality and experience. He has been there and seen it all before and his recent wins rightly put him right up there amongst the elite.

Who would have thought that when Joe Joyce crushed him three years ago in Manchester? It just goes to show that it ain’t over til its over if you are made of the right stuff.

ON SATURDAY NIGHT in Las Vegas and the early hours of Sunday morning here, US boxing will put its best foot forward with the mighty match-up of Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.

I think it is obvious and fairly well documented that boxing in America needs a shot in the arm and this will hopefully be the event to provide it.

The mainstream networks - HBO, Showtime, Fox and now ESPN - are now all directing their dollars away from boxing, which presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

The modern mediums of the broadcast world, such as DAZN, Amazon Prime and Netflix, view boxing as a winning ticket for them and this, in turn, will help to attract a younger audience that will sustain the sport far into the future.

This weekend’s fight is on Netflix and the potential viewership is mind boggling. I just hope the fight lives up to its billing and there is no controversy over the outcome.

My hunch falls in the corner of Canelo, purely on the basis of the big fella generally beating the little fella and not much more than that.

What I genuinely hope is that we have a fight for the ages that will deliver a timely tonic for boxing Stateside.