Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk: When is the fight, how to watch and the undercard line-up
What’s at stake?
Boxing will have an undisputed heavyweight champion in early 2024 after Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk agreed to fight each other in Saudi Arabia. Fury himself has called it a “fight for the ages”.
Fury holds the WBC belt, which he won in 2020 when he beat Deontay Wilder. He has defended that belt three times, against Wilder, Dillian Whyte and most recently against Derek Chisora.
Usyk has held the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles since beating Anthony Joshua in 2021. He had defended those titles twice since: against Joshua and then against Daniel Dubois.
Both Fury and Usyk are undefeated so far in their professional boxing careers.
The last time boxing had a unified and undisputed heavyweight champion was in 2000 when Lennox Lewis held all four titles.
When is Fury v Usyk?
The bout is scheduled for Saturday Feb 17, 2024.
In the press conference to confirm the date, Fury said of Usyk: “I’m going to bust him up. Sausage. Ugly little man. Rabbit. Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run. You know what’s coming? You’re getting smashed to pieces, sausage. You’re fighting the best British heavyweight there’s ever been.
“You’ve beaten the rest of them, but you haven’t beaten Tyson Fury, sausage. You can never beat me. If you beat me in your dreams you better wake up and apologise. I stole that from Muhammad Ali, I apologise.
“When you sleep at night ugly man you’re going to think of me for the next eight weeks. I’m going to punch your face in. You ugly little man.”
What are they saying?
The trash talk is in full swing, and Tyson Fury has taken aim at his opponents... earrings.
At a recent press event, Fury looked at his opponent and said. “I know he can’t beat me, I know he can’t,” he said. “A man who wears an earring can never beat Tyson Fury ever. Not a chance, no-one who wears earrings can beat him.”
Usyk responded: “I can explain about the earrings. It’s Ukrainian warrior, Cossack. They were the people who defended my country from our enemies for many years. This is just the proof of my Cossack lineage - they never lost to anybody. There is no beauty or fashion in this.”
Where is the fight being held?
The bout will be in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. As part of a promotion push for the fight Fury has been on holiday in Saudi Arabia, to the delight of Usyk’s team.
Egis Klimas, Usyk’s manager, said: “When one is playing around, another is training hard. We will see you February 17.”
How can I watch it in the UK?
The action is live on TNT Sports Box Office.
Who is on the undercard line-up?
Jai Opetaia will have a rematch against a man he defeated to become a cruiserweight world champion, Mairis Briedis. They’ll fight for the vacant IBF cruiserweight championship.
Joe Cordina make a second defence of his IBF Super-Featherweight crown and he’ll fight Belfast’s IBO World Champion, Anthony Cacace.
Sergey Kovalev fights Robin Sirwan Safar at cruiserweight. Isaac Lowe, who is Tyson Fury’s cousin, takes on Hasibullah Ahmadi at featherweight.
David Nyika, the six foot eight Kiwi cruiserweight will fight but his opponent is TBC. Heavyweights Bakhodir Jalolov and Moses Itauma are also both appearing but their opponents have not been named as of yet.
