The injury of Kubrat Pulev has taken away his chance to face Anthony Joshua in Cardiff on October 28 for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) world championships and World Boxing Association (WBA). This gave rise to a number of questions about the future of Cobra and his status as an official contender as the current match for the title was dropped and Joshua got assigned a new opponent - Carlos Takam, who is next to the IBF rankings.

Kubrat Pulev, however, remains the official contender for the world title, revealed from IBF to Sportal.bg.

"Joshua was ordered to defend his IBF title against Carlos Takam, who is the next possible contender. It is not certain how long Pulev will need to recover, but he remains the official contender for the heavyweight IBF title. However, he will have to wait for the order of mandatory protections to re-qualify as the champion will be in more than one version (in this case IBF and WBA), "told Janet Salazar, from the press of the International Boxing Federation.

After Joshua had a mandatory title defense in the IBF version, he would have to do the same in the WBA version. Eventually, a new date for mandatory protection from the IBF against the official contender who remains Kubrat Pulev will be scheduled within a year. It is possible that after his recovery Pulev could have time for another (regular) match before his new chance for a championship match.