Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will fight for the undisputed heavyweight world championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 17.
Usyk holds the unified WBO, IBF and WBA heavyweight titles. Most recently he came through the spirited challenge of Daniel Dubois.
Fury is the WBC champion. He was expected to fight Usyk to unify all the belts on December 23.
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Oleksandr Usyk gives his verdict on the fight between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou and admits he doesn’t think about the Englishman. Credit: Boxing News +
But Fury had a harder than expected 10-rounder with Francis Ngannou, a former UFC champion who was boxing professionally for the first time.
He was still committed to the Usyk fight and now they have settled on a date for early in the new year, with every major heavyweight belt at stake along with the status of undisputed champion.
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Bob Arum says Tyson Fury is injury free ahead of his undisputed heavyweight title bout against Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia
Usyk unified three titles with a unanimous decision win over Anthony Joshua in September 2021, then followed up with a split decision victory over Joshua in August 2022.
Fury ripped the WBC belt from Deontay Wilder in 2020 with a knockout win and repeated this result in the 2021 rematch before defending his title with stoppage wins over Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora last year.