Fury vs. Usyk to hold in early 2023

The undisputed fight between WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and WBA, WBO, and IBF heavyweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk would hold next year. 

Fury’s promoter, Bob Arum, has confirmed. According to Arum, none of the fighters are expected to have any fight before their bout, which is scheduled to hold in early 2023. Neither the date nor location has been confirmed. 

This is the first confirmation we are getting from Fury’s camp, meaning that both camps may have actually sat down to thrash out matters, although a formal contract is yet to be signed. 

Speaking with Sky Sports, Arum revealed the state of things at the moment. He said: “The two fighters have agreed to fight each other next. With Fury and Usyk, we’re dealing with two adults, not a lot of [rubbish] 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.”

The agreement not to have any fight before the undisputed bout is very important, as such a fight could totally derail plans and push the Fury vs. Usyk match to 2024, or worse, one of them could lose their title(s). At the moment, none of the fighters has any obligation or mandatory bout in place, meaning they are free to stave off any other fights until they meet. 

 On the question of when the fight could happen and the possible venue, Arum had this to say: “Now the question is what’s the date and what’s the site? 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 UK at Wembley [Stadium] with a massive 95,000 crowd in attendance.”

 So, that is it for now – the first in-camp confirmation of the undisputed match between the two titleholders of the heavyweight division. We expect more details of the match in the coming weeks. 

Written by: Leon Osamor