Usyk plans 2027 cruiserweight return and Benavidez bout, adviser says

Oleksandr Usyk is planning a return to cruiserweight in 2027 with the aim of becoming undisputed champion again before retirement, his adviser Sergey Lapin has said. BBC Sport reported that the unbeaten Ukrainian wants to pursue a vacant world title first and then face David Benavidez in a unification fight. Lapin presented the sequence as Usyk’s intended route through the final stage of his career, rather than an announced fight agreement.

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The proposal would take the 39-year-old back to the division where he first held all the major belts. Usyk had previously indicated that he wanted one final spell in boxing, which had been expected to come at heavyweight. Lapin’s account instead sets out a move down in weight, with the ambition of ending Usyk’s career as undisputed cruiserweight champion once more.

Usyk last competed in May, beating Rico Verhoeven before vacating his heavyweight titles, according to the BBC report. His professional record remains unbeaten across 25 fights. During his heavyweight career, he became undisputed champion twice and recorded two victories apiece over Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois, extending the success he had already achieved in the lighter division.

Before moving up to heavyweight in 2019, Usyk had won 16 fights at cruiserweight and unified the division. That history underpins the return outlined by Lapin: the objective is not simply another appearance at the weight, but a fresh attempt to collect all the belts. The adviser identified 2027 as the intended concluding year of Usyk’s career.

Benavidez, 29, is also unbeaten, having won all 32 of his professional contests. He holds the WBO and WBA cruiserweight titles and is scheduled to meet Poland’s Michal Cieslak for the WBC belt on 5 December. The IBF title is vacant after Jai Opetaia was stripped of it in March, the BBC reported.

Those title circumstances provide the background to Lapin’s proposed two-stage campaign. However, the report supplies no confirmed date or opponent for Usyk’s first fight back at cruiserweight, and it does not announce an agreement with Benavidez. For now, the return and subsequent unification remain objectives described by Usyk’s adviser, with Benavidez’s December contest still to come.