Tyson Fury puts Usyk fight on hold until 2023
The heavyweight bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will have to wait for 2023, with the former unwilling to hang around this year.
Tyson Fury vowed to not “wait around for anybody” as he promised to announce his next fight soon, but it will not be against Oleksandr Usyk. Usyk defended his WBO, IBF and WBA Super belts against Anthony Joshua in Jeddah in August, claiming a split-decision victory to down the Briton in their much-anticipated rematch.
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Fury has been repeatedly mooted as the next man to face the Ukrainian with the promise of a unification fight appealing to heavyweight boxing fans across the world. Usyk raised expectations of the mouth-watering bout when he said on Friday that he wants to face Fury and rubbished his retirement claims as “just a game” from a “very crazy guy”.
But the two will not clash in 2022 as Usyk wants to fight next year and Fury is refusing to wait for the opportunity – instead promising to reveal his next fight in the next week. “Usyk was calling me out after his last fight with [Anthony] Joshua, I’ve replied and said let’s do the fight this year, wherever they want to do it,” Fury said. “I’ve been waiting for offers from countries to come forward, and all of a sudden Usyk has stated he doesn’t want to fight anymore, he wants to fight next year, not this year. So I’m not going to wait around for anybody, I’m announcing a fight next week.”