Mairis Briedis Stills Plans To Fight At Heavyweight, Despite Options ‘Dodging’ Him

After seeing what Oleksandr Usyk has done, his former rival is thinking of following his footsteps.

Lineal and IBF cruiserweight world champion Mairis Briedis (27-1, 19 KOs) has publicly hinted a move to heavyweight. First, he’s defending his strap against Germany’s Artur Mann (17-1, 9 KOs) on Saturday, October 16 and then, if successful, he’ll have some time to think further about the move.

“I was ready to move up to heavyweight this year, but unfortunately, currently, there are no options for big fights at heavyweight,” he told Bad Left Hook. “Everyone we spoke to for fights that would matter seemed to be dodging me and that’s just the reality of it.”

It was a close contest between Usyk and Briedis when they met in January 2018. It was a unification battle for the WBC and WBC world cruiserweight titles.

And if one scorecard was different, Briedis could have been on a different path in his career.

After Usyk’s shocking, yet dominant performance against Anthony Joshua, Usyk’s name has been stuck everywhere, including a matchup with WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

But Briedis has been at heavyweight before. He stopped former title challenger Manuel Charr in five rounds in 2015.

And if that isn’t enough to make a case for Briedis at heavyweight, the Latvian boxer is the sole man to keep the battle even after going the distance against Usyk.

Additionally, in 2017, he became the first Latvian to hold a world boxing title when he defeated Marco Huck via unanimous decision; two fights later he’d lost it to Usyk.

However Saturday’s matchup goes, Briedis will still have a decision to make.

“I’m still having that division in my future plans,” he added.