BOXING
Fury vs Usyk 2: Full undercard, order and times of the preliminary fights
The Kingdom Arena in Riyadh is the venue for the Fury vs Usyk rematch. Another eight fights are on Saturday’s program, let’s take a look.
Oleksandr Usyk heads into Saturday’s rematch against Tyson Fury as slight favorite with bookmakers at -125, and at +8000 to stop the fight in the first round while the Brit boxer is at +126 to win back the titles he lost in Riyadh back in May.
The Ukrainian won that bout by split decision, with the judges; scorecard reading 115-112 and 114-113 to Usyk, and the third scoring 114-113 for Fury. It was a painful outcome for Fury, who suffered the first defeat of his professional career (34-1-1, 24 KO).
Seven month on the two boxers are back in Riyadh to contest the WBC, WBO and WBA heavyweight titles in the top billing at the Kingdom Arena.
Two boxers pull out
A total of eight preliminary fights feature on the undercard. Former junior middleweight titleholder Israil Madrimov had been listed to face Serhii Bohachuk but he was forced to bow out after succumbing to illness.
Undercard running order
- Andrii Novytskyi vs Edgar Ramirez (heavyweight)
- Daniel Lapin vs Dylan Colin (light-heavyweight)
- Peter McGrail vs Rhys Edwards (super-bantamweight)
- Isaac Lowe vs Lee McGregor (featherweight)
- Johnny Fisher vs Dave Allen (heavyweight)
- Serhii Bohachuk vs Ishmael Davis (super-welterweight)
- Moses Itauma vs Demsey McKean (heavyweight)
Main event
- Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury 2 (WBC, WBO and WBA heavyweight titles)
Fury vs Usyk 2: When is the weigh-in?
Another casualty was Dennis McCann, who was due to take on Peter McGrail in a super-bantamweight fight. McCann (16-0-1, 8 KO) failed a drugs test eight days before the event. Rhys Edwards has been drafted in to fight McGrail while Ishmael Davis will face Bohachuk.
Elsewhere, Johnny Fisher the “Romford Bull” will take on Dave Allen in an all-British heavyweight bout.
The weigh-in is due to take place in Riyadh on Friday 20 December from 12 noon ET / 9 a.m. PT.
Television coverage of the event is set to start at 7 p.m. local time AST at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh with the first undercard fight pencilled in for 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Ring walks for Usyk vs Fury II are expected at around 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT.