Murat Gassiev is in the dark about whether his WBA belt is on the line for the Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua heavyweight bout.
Gasiev, 32, was upgraded to ‘Super’ champion in July when Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title, having been the ‘Regular’ belt holder since 2025.
Fury and Joshua are scheduled to fight on 11 December in Cardiff and it was claimed that bout would be for the title Gassiev currently holds.
Speaking to ESPN, and after reaching out to the WBA, Gassiev says he is still in the dark.
“[The] WBA give me big surprise about my belt. But in press conference when AJ and Fury have face off, I see only Ring Magazine belt, no WBA belt,” Gassiev said.
“And to be honest right now, I don’t have clear information about this situation. I don’t know. Fight for ‘Super’ belt, another belt, I don’t know.
“I check my email. I don’t have any messages, any papers, but I’m not manager, promoter [or] lawyer. I’m fighter. I do my job, that’s it.”
However, the WBA regards their “Super” champion as their full champion while their “Regular” champion is always regarded as their number one challenger to their world championship belt.
In boxing there are four main world championships, the WBA “Super”, the IBF, the WBC, and the WBO belts.
Gassiev remains to be the champion according to the WBA official website. He is ranked second following American Jarrell Miller who is ranked first while Joshua ranks third.
Both Joshua and Fury are two-time world heavyweight champions and they did an official launch in London last week.
The fight between the heavyweights will take place at Cardiff’s Principality stadium and the fight is as a result of a ten-year process to bring the two British rivals in the boxing ring.
WBO world champion Daniel Dubois who defeated Joshua once before says that he cannot predict the winner.
“It doesn’t seem like it has that same edge to it, if it happened years ago,” Dubois said.
“They missed the fire and the edge. But I am sure it will be a great fight regardless.”
