Oleksandr Usyk's next desired opponent is Tyson Fury. But should it not happen, there's another fighter waiting in the wings.

Usyk is coming off a controversial ninth-round TKO win over Daniel Dubois this past weekend to defend his heavyweight titles. Despite the controversy surrounding whether Usyk was actually low-blowed or hit with a legal shot during the fight, the Ukrainian is moving on to his next opponent.

Ideally, that would be a title unification fight with Fury with negotiations already failing twice earlier this year. Regardless, Usyk still has high hopes of fighting the Briton and eventually unifying the division for the first time since the days of Lennox Lewis.

“I’m ready tomorrow,” Usyk said post-fight. “I’m ready. Next fight I am ready to fight Tyson Fury but does Tyson Fury want to? I have no idea.”

Whether a long-awaited fight between the pair happens in early 2024 remains to be seen. Perhaps, negotiations will go well this time or it'll be more of the same and boxing fans will have to keep waiting.

If it's the latter, Usyk's manager Egis Klimas revealed IBF mandatory Filip Hrgovic would be next.

“Hrgovic is the mandatory but if we're going to get the unification [against Fury] we're going to go for the unification,” Kimas said (via Boxing Scene). “If the unification is not done, of course Hrgovic will be next.”

Of course, this was more or less known considering Hrgovic's co-promoter Eddie Hearn revealed as such following the fighter's win over Demsey McKean earlier this month.

“He [Hrgovic] needed to get that fight, he needed to be active, and also the IBF confirmed that, after the Usyk-Dubois fight, they will call the immediate mandatory now for Filip Hrgovic,” Hearn said. “So he will fight the winner of that next.”

Hrgovic TKO'd McKean on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Robert Helenius fight to improve his professional record to 16-0. However, he showed some issues with his conditioning and overall, he's not a very big name other than with hardcore boxing fans.

If Dubois was an underwhelming opponent for Usyk — especially after all the hopes of him fighting Fury — Hrgovic is an even smaller name that is bound to get very little interest.

Hopefully, we get the fight we really want to see in Fury vs. Usyk instead.