The stakes are officially raised for the Filip Hrgovic-Daniel Dubois heavyweight clash.

They are just not as high as originally hoped

The Ring has confirmed the IBF has agreed to sanction Hrgovic-Dubois as an interim heavyweight title fight. Tentative approval was granted on Thursday, and was given the sanctioning body’s full blessing upon receipt of signed bout agreements Friday morning.

Hrgovic-Dubois part of a June 1 DAZN pay-per-view event from Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The bout was agreed to several weeks ago, though with hopes of the full title becoming available. Croatia’s Hrgovic (17-0, 14 knockouts), The Ring’s No. 6-rated heavyweight, is the overdue mandatory challenger for the IBF title.

Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) will bid to become a two-time secondary titleholder.

The 26-year-old Londoner previously held the WBA ‘Regular’ heavyweight title, which he lost via 9th round knockout to Usyk in their title consolidation bout last Aug. 26 in Wroclaw, Poland. Dubois rebounded with a 10th round stoppage of Jarrell Miller (26-1-1, 22 KOs) last Dec. 23 at Kingdom Arena. Hrgovic appeared on the same card, where he knocked out overmatched Mark de Mori in the first round.

Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) is the division’s RING and undisputed heavyweight champion. The unbeaten Ukraine entered his May 18 full unification bout versus Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) with the knowledge that his IBF reign could be in jeopardy, even with a win.

Approval was granted for Usyk to face Fury in lieu of an immediate mandatory versus Hrgovic. Usyk beat Fury via split decision to become a two-division undisputed champion.

Their memorable clash came with a rematch clause, which was triggered by Fury days afterward. Usyk followed suit by filing an exception with the IBF to avoid being stripped of the title.

Friday’s official ruling is a compromise that has satisfied all parties, at least for now.

Usyk-Fury was delayed by three months when Fury suffered a cut during training camp. That created a complication with the IBF mandatory status. The matter was further hindered by the contractually-bound rematch, though sanctioning bodies don’t recognize such clauses.

Another hurdle arose when it was learned that Usyk-Fury II would now take place in December instead of October. There is still the risk of Usyk being relieved of the IBF title by then.

Croatia’s Hrgovic has been the IBF’s top heavyweight contender since an August 2022 win over Zhilei Zhang. The Ring’s No. 6-rated heavyweight has fought just twice since then, largely due the mandatory challenger rotation system for unified titlists. There was also an issue in finding willing opposition even with an interim IBF title at stake.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Follow @JakeNDaBox

SUBSCRIBE NOW (CLICK HERE - JUST $1.99 PER MONTH) TO READ THE LATEST ISSUE