Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk signed a contract to fight for the title of absolute world champion

The most pressing fight in professional boxing, it seems, will still take place in the coming months. According to sources, two outstanding heavyweights – Briton Tyson Fury and Ukrainian Alexander Usik – signed a contract for a fight for the title of absolute world champion, negotiations for the organization of which unexpectedly broke down in the spring. The match, which guarantees colossal excitement and colossal income, should take place in the winter.

The fact that Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk signed contracts to fight each other was reported ESPN. According to him, the match will take place in Saudi Arabia. ESPN sources say it could take place on December 23 or “sometime in January.” The news was confirmed by a number of online resources specializing in boxing coverage.

We are talking about a grandiose event and quite unexpected, given the context. The fight between Tyson Fury, who holds the World Boxing Council (WBC) championship belt, and the owner of the International Boxing Federation (IBF), World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) titles, Alexander Usik, is apparently the most relevant for professional boxing in this moment.

The fact is that in the heavyweight division there have been no fights for the status of absolute world champion for two decades.

The formal significance of the match, coupled with the enormous popularity of the British and Ukrainian boxers, guarantees exceptional interest from the public and enormous income. Previously, experts, predicting the prize fund of the event, noted that it could not be lower than in the re-fight between Alexander Usik and another famous Briton, Anthony Joshua, that took place in Saudi Arabia last August. It is believed that payments to each of the fighters amounted to about $40 million.

At the same time, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usik recently missed a good chance to arrange a meeting and, it seemed, had quarreled so much that a new attempt to arrange it would have to wait a long time. In the spring, the parties were actively negotiating the organization of the fight, and it was believed that they were about to end in success. Moreover, its date and venue have already been set – April 29, London’s Wembley Stadium. But suddenly it turned out that the battle broke down due to disagreements of various natures, including financial ones, that arose between the parties. And the breakdown was followed by an exchange of barbs and reproaches.

As a result, instead of a super match, outstanding boxers had to agree to performances that were rather dubious in their value. Oleksandr Usyk fought in Wroclaw in August against Fury’s not-so-highly rated compatriot Daniel Dubois, and that fight ended in scandal. The team of Dubois, who suffered an early defeat in the ninth round, filed a protest against its outcome due to an emergency in the fifth round. In it, the Briton knocked out Usik, but the Ukrainian was saved by referee Louis Pabon, who considered the blow to fall below the belt (despite the fact that it hit the champion’s panties) and gave the victim time to recover.

As for Tyson Fury, his fight is still ahead. On October 28, in the same Saudi Arabia, which is slowly turning into almost the center of world boxing, he will face Cameroonian Francis Ngannou, for whom the fight will be his debut in the ring at a high level. Before this, Ngannou was a mixed martial arts star and even won the championship title of the UFC’s main promotion, before he quarreled with its leaders and suddenly changed genre.

Alexey Dospehov