By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury & Oleksandr Usyk have reportedly signed to fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship, with all four belts on the line for December 23rd in Saudi Arabia.
WBC heavyweight champion Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) first must get his fight with Francis Ngannou out of the way on October 28th and then move ahead to face IBF, WBA & WBO champ Usyk (21-0, 14 KOs) on December 23rd in Saudi Arabia.
ESPN is reporting the news of the Fury-Usyk fight, saying that “multiple sources” informed them of the bout taking place.
Provided that Fury doesn’t get cold feet and chooses not to go ahead, this should be a great fight, as Usyk has the style to negate the grizzly bear type of mauling that Tyson now uses exclusively to win his fights due to his advanced age, excessive weight gain and inactivity.
The Saudis likely made it worthwhile for Fury to agree to face the clever 2012 Olympic gold medalist Usyk, as yesterday, Tyson had dismissed the idea of facing him, harping about the “money” not being good enough and how it would hurt his career if he were to lose.
It was obvious to Charles Brun that Fury was just flat-out scared and sounding money-hungry. Fury is already sitting on a massive $65 million fortune, and with the Usyk & Ngannou fights taking place back-to-back, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Gypsy King’s net worth is doubled to $130+ million.
What may have clinched it for Fury to take the fight is Usyk’s poor performance against Daniel Dubois last month on August 26th in Wroclaw, Poland. Dubois hit Usyk with a beltline shot to the midsection, dropping him like a bad habit on the canvas.
Usyk was so hurt by the body shot that he stayed down for a full four minutes before the action resumed.
The referee gave Usyk a huge break by calling it a low blow, but it looked like a legitimate beltline body shot that put him down. For the remainder of the fight, Usyk looked bothered every time Dubois would hit him in the body.
Fury thinks it was a legal shot that Usyk was hit with, and he feels he should have lost the fight fight to Dubois. At any rate, that fight clearly gave Fury the confidence to take the risky contest against Usyk because he’s a good body puncher and will look to take advantage of Oleksandr’s Achilles heel.
