Report: Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk agree to meet with no interim fights
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk reportedly intend to fight each other next.
Bob Arum, Fury’s co-promoter, told Sky Sports that the heavyweight titleholders have agreed to meet for the undisputed championship in the first third of next year, as no date has been selected.
And Arum emphasized that they would have no interim fights.
The parties also haven’t settled on a site, although Arum said he has received offers from the Middle East. And Wembley Stadium in London evidently is a viable option.
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“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 [garbage] 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. 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.”
Arum made it clear that the site remains up in the air. At the same time, he obviously likes the idea of staging it at a packed Wembley.
“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 U.K. at Wembley 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] 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.”
When could a deal be struck?
“We’ll have it all sorted out,” Arum said. “I hope maybe by the end of the year.”
Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) is the WBC beltholder. “The Gypsy King” is coming off a dominating 2022, stopping both Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora.
Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) holds the other three major titles (IBF, WBA and WBO). The Ukrainian fought only once this year, outpointing Anthony Joshua in their rematch.
