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Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk rescheduled for May 18 after cut to British boxer’s face
Video shows the moment Fury’s face was cut in training, forcing the world heavyweight unification bout to be postponed
Tyson Fury’s undisputed heavyweight unification bout with Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk has been rescheduled for May 18 after the February 17 date was called off in the wake of the British boxer suffering an accidental cut to his right eye in sparring on Friday.
WBC champion Fury was due to face WBA, IBF and WBO belt holder Usyk in Saudi Arabia - in an event dubbed ‘Ring of Fire’ - with the Briton saying that he was “devastated” by the accidental cut in sparring.
Fury and Usyk appeared on a dual-cast on the American sports show The MMA Hour With Ariel Helwani on Saturday evening, as well as Saudi Arabian minister Turki Alalshikh who discussed the new date for the fight, acting as arbiter and revealing the next moves, said: “I guaranteed to both fighters 10 million (dollars) if someone escapes from the fight. This is the first thing. The second thing is, I guarantee a big fight for the other one on that same night.”
“If Usyk is scared, I will call for Joshua vs Tyson. If Tyson is scared, I will call for any fighter that Usyk wants,” added Alalshikh. “This is in my name. We have a guarantee from both sides and they know it now. On May 18, we will have the answer whether someone is a coward.”
Fury also detailed the accident. “Yesterday morning sparring, arranged to spar 12 rounds with four different guys. In round five I got an elbow in the eye, been to the hospital and got 11 stitches - nothing much anything can do about cut in sparring, s--- happens,” he added. “I was very disappointed, I’ve been in Saudi Arabia five weeks training and everything was going fantastic. It’s a cut that you can’t help and these things happen in camp sometimes.”
The gash above the right eye of Fury came from the elbow of Croatian sparring partner Agron Smakici, and Fury showed his stitched eye to the cameras on the broadcast, with Turki Alalshikh insisting that he would not be there if there was not absolute truth in the injury, in the face of circling conspiracy theories from Usyk’s team that the Briton was “running scared”.
The Usyk-Fury fight will unify four heavyweight titles is the definitive contest in the present heavyweight era. Both Fury and Usyk are undefeated, Fury holding the WBC belt, which he won in 2020 when he beat the American Deontay Wilder, having previously held the WBA, IBF and WBO belts in 2015, when he defeated then lineal champion Wladimir Klitschko.
Usyk, the former undisputed cruiserweight king, moved up to the blue riband division and has held the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles since beating Anthony Joshua in 2021.
He has since defended those titles twice, against Joshua - in Saudi Arabia - and then against Daniel Dubois, in Poland last summer. The last time boxing had a unified and undisputed heavyweight champion was in November 1999 when Lennox Lewis held all four titles, after defeating Evander Holyfield.