Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk Agree To Take No Interim Fights
Usyk's promoter previously said that the fight should have no later than March.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk reportedly agreed to face no one else but each other.
Fury’s co-promoter, Bob Arum, backed the statement recently provided by Usyk’s promoter, Alexander Krassyuk, and confirmed that their fighters have agreed to meet for the undisputed heavyweight championship in the first third of 2023.
“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.”
On Tuesday, Krassyuk said that the fight should happen no later than March 4, 2023 and that the frontrunning options are three countries in the Middle East. He further added that Great Britain is a “basic option” that they have.
Arum, on the other hand, would prefer staging it in Fury’s home country.
“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,” he said.
“… [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.”
As for a date, Arum said it’ll be struck hopefully “maybe by the end of the year.”
Fury recently defended his WBC title by stopping old rival Derek Chisora earlier this month.
Usyk made his first defense of his three belts and was successful in his rematch against former champion Anthony Joshua.