Fury vs Usyk preview
Tyson Fury will be battling Oleksander Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight boxing championship of the world. This will be the first undisputed heavyweight title fight in nearly 25 years, when Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield for the crown.
Fury was the previous unified champion and current World Boxing Council (WBC) champ, Usyk is the current World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Organization (WBO), and International Boxing Federation (IBF) heavyweight champ as well as the previous Undisputed Cruiserweight champ.
This fight has been in the works since Usyk defeated Anthony Joshua for his three belts in September of 2021, with constant delays ranging from the war in Ukraine, Usyk’s home, to simple contract disputes.
Fury had been a clear betting favorite due to his height, reach, and 50lbs weight advantage over Usyk until his embarrassing fight with former UFC Heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou. While Fury won a split decision the fact that it had been a close fight, Ngannou had never boxed before, which led to a perception that Fury had been slacking on his training or was simply overrated as a boxer.
Usyk also had a controversial defense of his belt when was hit with a disputed low blow by Daniel Dubois. While many thought it was above the belt line the Referee let Usyk have nearly four minutes to recover. Usyk recovered and battered Dubois on his way to a knockout win.
The winner of this fight will be only the 19th boxer to become an undisputed champion, if Usyk wins he will become the second boxer and only man to be undisputed in two weight classes, the first being Claressa Shields.
The fight will be on February 17, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The PPV platform is still TBD.
