Tyson Fury & Oleksandr Usyk Agree To Fight Next Without Interim Fights, Says Bob Arum

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are slowly getting closer to fighting one another.

After Fury beat Derek Chisora in December, he and Usyk had a faceoff as many expected that fight to be next. It is one of the biggest fights to make in boxing, but it has yet to come to fruition. However, according to Fury’s promoter Bob Arum, he says the two sides have agreed to fight one another with no interim fights in between.

“The two fighters have agreed to fight each other next,” Arum told Sky Sports. “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.”

As of right now, Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk is expected to fight in early 2023 in the Middle East. It would be a massive fight and Arum says the only hold-up is the exact location and stadium. Yet, he believes it will be done soon.

“Now the question is what’s the date and what’s the site,” Arum said. “But that fight is definitely going to happen and it will happen in the first four months of next year. We are balancing a couple of significant offers from the Mid East and also there’s the possibility of doing the fight in the UK at Wembley [stadium] with a massive 95,000 crowd in attendance. Fighters have a relatively short life and money is important. So if the money which has been proposed to us is real that has to be taken into consideration. To go back to Wembley and do a fight before 95,000 people for me really stirs up the blood. It would be crazy. It would just be wonderful. It shouldn’t be too long before a final decision is made. We’ll have it all sorted out. I hope maybe by the end of the year.”

Who do you think will win, Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk?