Kalle Sauerland of Sauerland Event, who promotes IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev, does not believe Anthony Joshua will vacant his IBF heavyweight crown.
The sanctioning body is now applying the pressure for Joshua to make a mandatory defense against Pulev.
Last Saturday night, Joshua solidified his superstar status with an eleventh round knockout of Wladimir Klitschko before a record crowd of 90,000 fans at Wembley in London. The win also gave Joshua the vacant WBA, IBO world titles.
Joshua would have no problem with facing Pulev, but there is the issue of an immediate rematch clause in the bout agreement with Klitschko.
If Klitschko exercised that clause, then Joshua would be legally tied to a second fight - which would force him to drop the IBF belt.
A similar situation forced Tyson Fury to lose his belt. He shocked Klitschko for his world titles in November 2015. The IBF ordered him to face Czar Glazkov, but Klitschko exercised an immediate rematch clause - which caused Fury to get stripped for being unable to make his mandatory.
"I would be disappointed and I don't expect him to vacate, to be honest," said Sauerland to Sky Sports. "I think Anthony is a guy who has built himself up very much on being a very good sportsman, and he rises to every challenge. It's also the first [world] belt that he won as a pro and those are normally the belts that you don't let go of. I would be very, very surprised if he didn't fight Pulev."
"Ultimately, the IBF will always decide themselves and they are not like some federations where you can make step aside deals, as it's called in boxing, where you are paid money to step aside. That's just simply not possible with the IBF, so we have to find a solution where we have a certain degree of security where the people who are fighting for the world title - if the request was to have that rematch - then obviously both guys would have to sign something to agree to fight Pulev on certain terms and conditions.
Contrary to popular belief, there are no step-aside deals under the IBF. Joshua's promoter, Eddie Hearn is trying to work something out with Pulev's team that works for everyone.
"There's plenty of ongoing discussions right now regarding Anthony's next move - the more belts you accumulate, the more cluttered the situation becomes," Hearn told Sky Sports.
"It is our intention to navigate AJ to become the undisputed champion and capture every belt in the division. We certainly do not want to vacate belts, but we also want to make the best and biggest fights out there. We are working hard and I expect some further news next week."
