The undisputed world heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will take place on February 17 and has been announced.
Fury will defend his WBC title against Usyk, who is the champion of the WBA, IBF, and WBO. The fight will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
After a violent face-off at the end of their press conference in London, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk came into physical contact with one another and had to be separated.
Following a heated press conference to confirm their fight for the undisputed heavyweight world title on February 17, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk butted heads and had to be separated before the fight could go on.
At a press conference on Thursday evening in London, the two met each other for the first time, announcing that the highly anticipated fight between WBC champion Fury and WBO, IBF, and WBA unified king Usyk will take place in Saudi Arabia in the beginning of 2019.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk clash heads at fiery undisputed title fight confirmation
After a press conference in which ‘The Gipsy King’ ignited the fuse for the showdown in Riyadh, the two were engaged in a heated face-off, which resulted in them having to be separated from one another. This confrontation took place in Riyadh.
Fury took aim at both the K2 Promotions head and the Ukrainian’s manager, Egis Klimas, during an interruption of a speech given by Usyk’s promoter, Alexander Krassyuk. Fury pledged to strip Usyk of his belts in the same manner that he did against fellow countryman Wladimir Klitschko in 2015.
When Fury and Oleksandr Usyk were on the same stage in London, Fury started a verbal assault against Usyk.
“You’re welcome to be sharing a ring with the future undisputed heavyweight champion—me,” stated Tyson Fury. “You are all dossers; he is going to get knocked out, and you two [Krassyuk and Klimas] are going to be working for me carrying my luggage, so remember that I stated that on this platform.
“I already relieved one Ukrainian of all the belts, and I’ll relieve that idiot of all the belts I gave him, including that Ring Magazine that I only vacated last year so that I could win it back three times, sausage.” I have already relieved one Ukrainian of all the belts.
“You are about to be shattered into a million pieces, and you are well aware of this fact. You are going up against the greatest heavyweight to ever come out of the United Kingdom. You defeated all of the other competitors, but you are no match for Tyson Fury, sausage.”
During Usyk’s most recent defence, he was successful in overcoming the threat posed by Daniel Dubois of Britain. On December 23, Fury was supposed to battle Usyk in an attempt to unify all of the belts, but instead, he had a 10-round fight with Francis Ngannou, a former UFC champion who was boxing professionally for the first time. The fight was more difficult than predicted.
He was still dedicated to fighting Usyk, and at this point, they have agreed to set the bout for the beginning of the new year. All of the main heavyweight titles, as well as the title of undisputed champion, will be on the line in this battle.
Before the press conference to promote their undisputed world title bout, Fury made a mockery of Usyk’s training camp.
After knocking out Deontay Wilder in their first fight in 2020, Tyson Fury won the WBC belt from Wilder in their rematch in 2021 as well. Fury then successfully defended his title in 2017 with stoppage victories over Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora.
Following his victory against Anthony Joshua by unanimous decision in September 2021, Usyk went on to defeat Joshua again by split decision in August 2022, unifying all three belts that he had previously held.
The Olympic gold medalist, who is now 36 years old, spoke with Krassyuk interpreting for him as he channelled a biblical story to explain why he believes he will become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis won the title 24 years ago. He believes that he, and not Fury, will achieve this feat.
“I want to tell one story that looks very similar to our story with Tyson, about David and Golliath,” Usyk elaborated. “When the Lord gives Tyson into my hands, I will do my job,” the warrior said.
“The Lord has nothing impossible.”