As BoxingScene.com's Steve Kim first reported on Wednesday, the IBF is ordering their world champion Anthony Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) to make a mandatory defense against Kubrat Pulev of Bulgaria.
This past Saturday night, Joshua unified the IBF, WBA, IBO world titles with an eleventh round stoppage of former division ruler Wladimir Klitschko.
The contest took place before a record crowd of 90,000 at Wembley in London.
As BoxingScene noted, if Klitschko exercises his contractual clause for an immediate rematch - then Joshua's hands will be tied with respect to making a mandatory defense against Pulev - and the IBF will likely strip the British superstar.
In 2015, an identical scenario happened to Joshua's country rival Tyson Fury. He stunned Wladimir Klitschko to capture the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO world titles. Following the fight, the IBF ordered him to fight mandatory challenger Czar Glazkov. Fury was unable to do so, because he was contractually bound to do a rematch with Klitschko. And as a result the IBF stripped him.
Hearn is hoping to sort the situation out, but also realizes that Joshua could be forced to drop the IBF belt.
“Talks with the IBF and Pulev’s promoter Team Sauerland are ongoing. By the weekend we should have some clarity but it is very complicated," Hearn told Declan Taylor.
“We don’t want to drop the IBF belt but if we have to we’ll have no problem doing exactly that. We won’t let boxing politics get in the way of AJ’s progression. Ideally, we want all the belts but when you get close, it becomes difficult because of situations like this.”
“This is not going away, the IBF always follow their rules just as they did with Fury. We could look to do a deal with Pulev and try to make an interim bout for the belt — with the winner of that to face AJ.”