Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have agreed to fight each without either taking a bout in the interim, confirms promoter Bob Arum; Fury versus Usyk would be an undisputed heavyweight championship fight, and the UK is still in the running to host it
Wednesday 21 December 2022 12:44, UK
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have agreed to fight each other next.
The two hold all four of the major heavyweight world title belts between them and their richly anticipated fight would decide the undisputed heavyweight world championship.
Bob Arum of Top Rank, the US company that co-promotes Fury with Queensberry Promotions in the UK, revealed to Sky Sports that neither Fury, the WBC champion, nor Usyk, the unified WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight titlist, would take a bout before that showdown.
Fury and Usyk are set on having the undisputed contest in early 2023, with only the exact date and the location to be finalised.
"The two fighters have agreed to fight each other next," Arum told Sky Sports.
"With Fury and Usyk we're dealing with two adults, not a lot of [rubbish] back and forth. Usyk is a good friend of mine, he's very intelligent and Tyson is Superman, both as an athlete and as an intellect," he continued.
"So they want the fight. Both of them want the fight and so there'll be very little, if any, [messing] around. So we'll be able to make that happen. I'm very, very confident. As I said the fighters have both agreed to fight each other next without any interim fights."
The UK is still in the running to host the fight, despite lucrative offers to take it to a venue in the Middle East.
"Now the question is what's the date and what's the site," Arum said. "But that fight is definitely going to happen and it will happen in the first four months of next year.
"We are balancing a couple of significant offers from the Mid East and also there's the possibility of doing the fight in the UK at Wembley [stadium] with a massive 95,000 crowd in attendance.
"Fighters have a relatively short life and money is important. So if the money which has been proposed to us is real that has to be taken into consideration."
But he added: "To go back to Wembley and do a fight before 95,000 people for me really stirs up the blood.
"It would be crazy. It would just be wonderful."
It shouldn't be too long before a final decision is made. "We'll have it all sorted out," Arum said. "I hope maybe by the end of the year."
There should be one champion, shouldn't there? But it's been almost 20 years since boxing had an undisputed heavyweight king.
Lennox Lewis was universally recognised as the number one heavyweight in the world. After his retirement in 2003 the division was dominated by Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. Together they did hold all four of the major titles at the same time but of course the two brothers would never fight one another.
Tyson Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko in 2015 to scatter three of the belts, while Deontay Wilder would pick up the WBC crown that same year.
Fury was out of the sport for two years. Anthony Joshua then unified the WBO, WBA and IBF titles in an impressive championship-winning run. But he never fought Wilder when the American had the WBC belt.
It was Fury who came back in 2018 to beat Wilder. A clash between the two Britons when both were champions was never put together. Joshua has then twice lost decisively to Usyk.
That has made Usyk the chief threat to Fury. The significance of Fury-Usyk now being on course is that at long last the top two heavyweights in the world will box one another to decide who is number one. It is exactly the type of fight boxing needs.
The simplest question for boxing - which for far too long has not had a simple solution, has been: who is the true heavyweight champion?
With Fury-Usyk set, the sport will finally get the answer it needs.
