Oleksandr Usyk appears to have had a change of heart as he plots the fights that will take him to the end of his career.
Usyk is the king of the heavyweight division, becoming undisputed on two occasions after twice beating Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois.
He currently holds the WBC, WBA and IBF titles, vacating the WBO strap last year after opting not to take on mandatory challenger Fabio Wardley, with Wardley making the first defence of that belt on May 9 against Dubois.
Instead, Usyk is set to defend his WBC title in a controversial fight against kickboxing star Rico Verhoeven at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt on May 23, and the Ukrainian recently revealed his plans for the rest of his career.
Whilst naming a three-man hit list, Usyk stated that after facing Verhoeven, he plans to take on the winner of the fight between Wardley and Dubois, before then squaring off with past foe Fury once again.
One man notably missing from the list is former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, who had been called out for a fight by Usyk for a number of months.
The pair were understood to be in negotiations for a fight prior to the Ukrainian announcing his clash with Verhoeven, whilst Wilder will instead take on fellow heavyweight veteran Derek Chisora at The O2 Arena on April 4.
Wilder himself has reacted to the U-turn from Usyk, believing that the Ukrainian may have been intimidated when they met in person, but if ‘The Bronze Bomber’ is able to defeat Chisora in impressive fashion, he could put himself back into the mix to earn the fight.
