(London) An agreement has been reached for a fight to unify the world heavyweight boxing belts between the British Tyson Fury and the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, on a date to be determined, promoter Frank Warren announced on Friday.
The long-awaited fight will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between Fury (35), holder of the WBC belt in the category, and Usyk (36), who barely retained the WBA, IBF and WBO titles against British hopeful Daniel Dubois at the end of August.
“Heavyweight always sparks the imagination of fans, and I have no doubt that this will be the biggest boxing event of the century,” commented Warren. “This is the biggest fight that can be possible in our sport,” he added.
Fury has won 33 fights (1 draw) since his professional debut in 2008. Also undefeated, Usyk has won all 21 of his professional fights.
Usyk won the three belts in September 2021 against holder Anthony Joshua, before retaining them in a rematch organized in August 2022. He barely kept them on August 26 in Wroclaw, Poland against British hopeful Daniel Dubois.
This last fight was organized at the request of the WBA, after the failure of negotiations to organize a unification fight against Fury. The latter was held responsible for this failure and targeted by criticism, then the abandonment of a fight initially scheduled for April at Wembley.
The winner of the Fury-Usyk duel will become the first boxer to have all four heavyweight belts since Briton Lennox Lewis in 1999.
