The unification fight of the world heavyweight boxing belts between the British Tyson Fury and the Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk will take place on February 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, its promoters announced Thursday. Fury is the WBC heavyweight champion and his Ukrainian opponent holds the WBA, IBF and WBO belts. The winner of the fight will be the first unified heavyweight champion of the world since Lennox Lewis in 1999 and 2000.
Fury, 35, and Usyk, 36, were initially scheduled to face each other on December 23, but the Briton’s unconvincing points success against MMA star Francis Ngannou on October 29 led to the fight being postponed. The “Gipsy King” finished his match against Ngannou with a black eye and a cut on his forehead. Tyson Fury has 34 wins and one draw since his professional debut in 2008, Usyk has 21 wins in 21 professional fights.
Usyk won his three belts in September 2021 against the holder Anthony Joshua, before retaining them during a rematch organized in August 2022. He barely kept them on August 26 in Wroclaw in 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, while their fight was initially scheduled for April at Wembley. Tyson Fury won his WBC heavyweight world championship belt against Deontay Wilder in 2020.