According to Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have now reached an agreement to fight each other in their next outings, and won’t take any interim fights before meeting up to crown an undisputed heavyweight champion.
Arum tells Sky Sports that he expects a Fury vs Usyk fight to take place relatively early in 2023, although they’re still working on finalizing both a specific date and a venue:
“The two fighters have agreed to fight each other next. With Fury and Usyk we’re dealing with two adults, not a lot of [rubbish] back and forth. Usyk is a good friend of mine, he’s very intelligent and Tyson is Superman, both as an athlete and as an intellect.
“So they want the fight. Both of them want the fight and so there’ll be very little, if any, [messing] around. So we’ll be able to make that happen. I’m very, very confident. As I said the fighters have both agreed to fight each other next without any interim fights.”
Obviously, with this being boxing and this fight in particular being a big deal, there are lucrative offers coming in from the Middle East to host the fight, while there’s also potential for it to land in the UK.
Presumably the SITE FEES — which if you’re not familiar, both Scott and John touch on during this weeks podcast — will be much higher in the Middle East, although Bob Arum does love the energy of a packed Wembley Stadium.
Whichever way it goes, Arum expects to have this sorted out in pretty short order, hoping that he solidifies the date and site by the end of the year, which only has 10 days left in it. We’ll keep you posted with any developments.