Usyk will vacate heavyweight belts, says he is not retiring

Oleksandr Usyk said on June 26, 2026, that he will vacate his heavyweight belts but is not retiring, a move that immediately blows open a division he had tightened into a rare state of order. The 39-year-old Ukrainian held the WBA, WBC and IBF titles when he made the announcement, and said he still has one fight left before ending his career.

The decision strips the heavyweight class back to its bargaining table. Usyk had already vacated the WBO belt late last year, and that move lifted Fabio Wardley to full champion status. With the WBA, WBC and IBF now heading into vacancy, sanctioning bodies are set to move contenders into title fights and return the division to the familiar politics of competing belts and split claims.

Usyk leaves as one of boxing’s defining champions. He went 25-0 with 16 knockouts, became a two-time undisputed heavyweight champion, and also ruled the cruiserweight division as its undisputed champion before moving up. His recent run included two wins each over Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Daniel Dubois, a sequence that gave him leverage over every other major heavyweight name and left few active challengers with a comparable record.

His latest reclamation of the undisputed crown came in July 2025 at Wembley Stadium in London, where he beat Daniel Dubois to regain full heavyweight status. That victory restored a unified picture for a division that has long been fractured by sanctioning-body rivalries. His exit from the title picture now threatens to reverse that progress almost immediately.

Wardley’s elevation to full WBO champion gives Britain one recognized heavyweight titleholder already in place, while the other sanctioning bodies prepare to sort through their own vacancy lists. That should create immediate opportunities for top contenders across the division, but it also opens the door for another round of alphabet-driven fragmentation if the bodies move on different tracks instead of lining up the same contenders.

Usyk’s announcement did not close the door on his career. It opened the next phase of the heavyweight division, where leverage will shift fast and the race to crown new champions starts without the man who had been holding most of the hardware.