WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk are close to agreeing on a fight date in the early months of 2023, Fury’s top-rank boxing promoter Bob Arum has announced.
Fury had called out the Ukrainian after his win over Derek Chisora where he retained his WBC championship.
A fight between the two has been on the cards for ages as the winner will unify the heavyweight division.
Usyk had taken the place of Anthony Joshua in the hierarchy after beating the Brit twice, to take his rightful place as Fury’s challenger.
The exact date and location for the unification showdown are yet to be finalised but Arum is confident that neither fighter would take a bout before their face-off.
“The two fighters have agreed to fight each other next,” Arum told Britain’s Sky Sports.
“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.”
As for the location of the bout, the Middle East has recently risen to the top of the list with Saudi Arabia already hosting several high-profile events while Britain also remains an option with Wembley Stadium a perfect destination.
The fight between Tyson Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) and Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) will crown the division’s first unified champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999 and given the enormity of the implications, we may see the two fight more than once at different locations.
“It shouldn’t be too long before a final decision is made. “We’ll have it all sorted out,” Arum said. “I hope maybe by the end of the year.”
