Following the cancellation overnight of a heavyweight championship unification bout between WBC gold holder, Tyson Fury, and WBO, WBA, IBO, and IBF gold holder, Oleksandr Usyk for later this month, the long-anticipated clash is now officially rescheduled to take place on May 18. – with another more withdrawals from either party resulting in a $10,000,000 fine and donation to the other.
Yesterday evening, reports emerged detailing how unbeaten WBC heavyweight titleholder, Tyson Fury was out of his scheduled title fight with Usyk this month in Saudi Arabia, suffering a nasty laceration over his right eye during a sparring session.
Appearing to catch a stray left elbow whilst wearing headgear during a sparring session in the weeks ahead of his trip to Riyadh in a bid to unify the belts against Ukrainian favorite, Usyk, Fury was forced to withdraw from the matchup, requiring multiple stitches to close the “severe” cut.
Tyson Fury now faces Oleksandr Usyk on May 18.
However, this evening during an interview with MMA Fighting, the adviser to the Saudi Royal Court, Turki Alalshiekh confirmed that Fury will not face Usyk on May 18. in the Middle East – with the stipution that if either fighter withdraws from the newly-scheduled pairing, they will forfeit $10,000,000 of their purse to the other.
Turki Alalshikh says if Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk pull out of their fight on May 18, they've agreed to forfeit $10 million
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Most recently featuring in the region back in August in a non-title bout with former undisputed UFC heavyweight gold holder, Francis Ngannou, Morecambe native, Fury narrowly retained his unbeaten professional record, landing a close, controversial split decision win over the Cameroonian over the course of 12 rounds.
As for Usyk, the world championship holder moved to 21-0 as a professional back in August to boot in Poland, stopping British contender and title challenger, Daniel Dubois with an eventual ninth round KO win.
Who wins the heavyweight title fight in May: Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk?