Boxing
There’s a lot at stake in Saturday night’s heavyweight show in Riyadh. For the first time since Lennox Lewis 25 years ago, the winner of the duel – touted as the “fight of the century” – between the Briton Tyson Fury and the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk can become the “Undisputed Champion”. He secured all four major world titles from the IBF, WBO, WBA and WBC associations – and thus a highly respected place in boxing history. In addition, it’s about the IBO title.
18.05.2024 12.00
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The nerves are tense – not just for both world champions, but also for Fury’s eccentric father. At the beginning of the week he suffered a bloody wound on his forehead when he hit a member of Usyk’s team, causing a scandal. “His father is nervous. He’s trying to fight the smallest guy on Usyk’s team,” complained Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk.
Both boxing stars are still undefeated. The nimble Usyk (21 wins) is likely to want to cause problems for the 15 centimeter taller Fury (34 wins), especially with his speed. “Fury has never had to deal with such speed,” Krassyuk said. “Tyson has advantages in size, reach and weight. Point. Usyk has advantages in speed, boxing IQ and technique.”
Reuters/Andrew Couldridge As a more nimble and technically skilled boxer, Usyk believes in his chance
Usyk took his world title from Anthony Joshua in 2021 and successfully defended it against the Brit in 2022. The fight against Fury was already longed for. In 2015, Fury surprisingly defeated Wladimir Klitschko and became world champion. He later gave up all titles and battled depression and drug use. In 2018 he was back – and grabbed the WBC title.
Tough negotiations
As befits such a big fight, scheduling the event was a tough struggle. Disagreements over the monetary allocation almost led to the negotiations being broken off. According to several media reports, Fury will receive more than $100 million for the fight, while Usyk will receive less.
But it wasn’t just money that delayed the duel. The two were supposed to compete against each other on December 23rd. However, Fury, who appeared untrained at the time, received a cut in an exhibition fight against former MMA champion Francis Ngannou a few weeks earlier – and then had to take a break. A short time later, Fury suffered another cut while sparring in preparation for the February fight against Usyk. And again the spectacle had to be postponed. Now nothing should stand in the way of the fight.
