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LONDON (Reuters) - The World Boxing Organisation ordered Ukraine's world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk to open talks with Joseph Parker on Thursday for a mandatory title defence. Previously undisputed champion Usyk, 38, holds the WBC, WBA and WBO belts after two successive wins over Britain's Tyson Fury. New Zealand's Parker was WBO champion from 2016 to 2018, when he was beaten by Anthony Joshua on a 12-round unanimous decision.
The Briton then lost the belt to Usyk in London in September 2021. Now 33, Parker stopped Congolese replacement Martin Bakole in two rounds in a fight for the WBO Interim belt in Riyadh last month. The WBO ordered fight negotiations in an email to both boxers' management, Alex Krassyuk of Team Usyk and Frank Warren of Queensberry Promotions, published on the boxing body's website.
"The parties have 30 days to reach terms. Failure to do so will result in this committee ordering purse bid proceedings in accordance with WBO regulations of world championship contests," it added. Britain's IBF champion Daniel Dubois, who withdrew from a fight with Parker in February due to illness, has also been in talks with Usyk for the undisputed title and is also represented by Warren.
"We are now working on this fight, Wembley as one of the options," Krassyuk told Sky Sports television on Wednesday. The WBO's email, from chairman Luis Batista Salas, was dated March 13. Dubois lost to the undefeated Usyk in Poland in 2023 but took the IBF belt after the Ukrainian vacated it last year after his first victory over Fury.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris).
