In many ways the weekend went as expected. Oleksandr Usyk repeated his victory over Anthony Joshua, retaining his WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles and then Tyson Fury announced he was ready to make his return to the ring to face the Ukrainian.
“It’s going to be very expensive; so get your f*****g chequebook out and I will relieve the Ukrainian dosser of the belts,” Fury, the WBC heavyweight champion, said on social media.
Fury’s planned return is no surprise. Indeed, it is a wonder Fury was able to keep a straight face with his retirement talk, when even his wife and father were saying they did not believe it. Last week he had a lengthy video call with Mauricio Sulaiman, the WBC president, and apparently convinced him he was genuine with his exit plan.
But the plan was always for Fury to box the winner and some would even have you believe a deal was agreed to stage the fight back in Saudi Arabia, which is fast becoming a go-to venue for big heavyweight fights — it is certainly the one with deepest pockets.
Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk could be slated for an undisputed heavyweight title showdown in December 2022.
Last Saturday night in Jeddah, Oleksandr Usyk defeated Anthony Joshua via split decision to retain the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles, whilst also capturing The Ring belt in the process. The contest was hard to call in the eyes of many but in the end, Usyk’s superior boxing ability got him the win he deserved – and put an end to his rivalry with the Englishman.
The next step looks set to be a unification match against Tyson Fury, the man considered to be the lineal champion of the division.
There are still plenty of hurdles to overcome but as per a recent report, Saudi Arabia is ready to put forward an offer that would see them play host to the blockbuster showdown on December 17 – the day before the World Cup final in Qatar.
“We’re interested. That’s all I can say,” Prince Abdulaziz said. “In the winter time, if it does happen, I think it will be hosted in Riyadh. But we still haven’t decided on anything.”
Tyson Fury has retired and unretired multiple times in recent years and in the last couple of months, nobody has really been able to tell whether he’s coming or going.
‘The Gypsy King’ has dispatched Deontay Wilder and Dillian Whyte in his last few contests and appears to have everything he could ever need to ride off into the sunset once and for all. Alas, the sport of boxing is tough to walk away from, with the masses believing he’s gearing up for one final pay day.
Standing 6’6" and weighing 255.25 pounds for his last fight, the London-born slugger has emerged as a legitimate heavyweight player in the last 24 months thanks to a string of impressive KOs.
He stopped a previously unbeaten Daniel Dubois in 10 rounds in November 2020, followed it with consecutive erasures of Carlos Takam and Christian Hammer over a combined 10 rounds, and earned the WBO’s dubious “interim” world title with an 11th-round finish of former top-tier champion Joseph Parker two months ago.
The latest win got Joyce to 15-0 as a pro and was his 14th KO in a career that began in 2017 after he earned a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
It also got him onto Fury’s radar and prompted the WBC champion to suggest that if a fight with unified champ Oleksandr Usyk didn’t come off, he’d be a welcome stand-in.
“If Usyk don’t want no smoke in February, then let’s do Joe Joyce at Wembley,” he told Frank Warren’s Queensbury Promotions. “Joe, get your skates on, get fit mush, because if (Usyk) don’t want no smoke, you’re in. Because I’m fighting three times next year and you can be one of them.” - bleacher report
