Epic Rematch Tonight: Ukrainian Boxer Usyk Faces British Fury
The most anticipated rematch between Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk and British boxer Tyson Fury will take place tonight in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The Ukrainian will be defending the WBA, WBC and WBO world heavyweight championships in the ring.
In May, the first fight between the two boxers turned out to be the most successful in Usyk's career. He became the first fighter in the history of the division to unify four major titles at once, and inflicted the still undefeated Fury with his first career defeat.
The rematch was stipulated in the contract for the first fight, but this time the absolute title will not be at stake - the Ukrainian was forced to vacate the IBF belt due to the inability to hold a mandatory defence in time.
Oleksandr Usyk is currently completing preparations for his rematch with Tyson Fury. The day before the fight, the boxers held a traditional weigh-in ceremony, Ukrinform reports.
The weight of the Ukrainian was 102.57 kg, the weight of the Briton was 127.45 kg.
Earlier, having defeated the ‘Gypsy King’ in their first May meeting by split decision, Ukrainian Usyk predicted that he would win against the Briton when they met for the second time in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Oleksandr's remarkable victories have accompanied him throughout his career, both at the amateur and professional levels.
Suspilne Sport collected the biggest fights of Usyk, who conquered the Olympic Games and later became the absolute champion in two weight divisions at once.
2012: Olympic champion (rival - Clemente Russo)
On his way to the gold medal at London 2012, Usyk defeated three opponents in the heavyweight category: he started with a victory over Russian Artur Beterbiev and made it to the final after a fight with Bulgarian representative Tervel Pulev.
2013: First professional victory (Felipe Romero)
Usyk began his professional career the following year with a fight at the Kyiv Sports Palace. Oleksandr's opponent was Mexican Romero, who at that time had 24 professional fights and a fight for the WBO Intercontinental title.
2016: The first fight for the world champion (Krzysztof Glowacki)
Usyk went out to fight for the world championship in his 10th professional fight. The Ukrainian was facing the current WBO heavyweight champion Glowacki, who at the time was still undefeated with 26 wins in a row.
After winning the WBO world championship, Usyk made two successful defences: he defeated South African Tabiso Mchunu and American Michael Hunter before Oleksandr had a great start in the World Boxing Super Series.
2018: Absolute cruiserweight championship (Mairis Briedis/Murat Gassiev)
The two World Boxing Super Series fights that Usyk held in 2018 allowed the Ukrainian to unite four heavyweight titles. Both meetings took place in the countries of his rivals: the Ukrainian fought Latvian Briedis in Riga and Russian Gassiev in Moscow.
2019: Debut in the heavyweight division (Chazz Witherspoon)
Less than a year after his last fight in cruiserweight, the Ukrainian made his debut in the super-heavyweight division. The opponent was 38-year-old American Witherspoon, who came into the fight with eight consecutive victories, but in his career he had only fought twice for the WBC and WBO minor belts - both times he lost.
2021-2022: World champion in two weight categories and first rematch in heavyweight (Anthony Joshua)
Usyk's candidacy was considered by Joshua's team as a backup: the Briton was supposed to fight Fury, but Tyson was forced by an arbitration decision to hold the final fight of the trilogy with Deontay Wilder. Then the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) appointed Anthony to fight the Ukrainian, the official contender for the title.
2024: Absolute world heavyweight champion (Tyson Fury)
After lengthy negotiations between Usyk's and Fury's representatives, as well as the postponement of the fight due to the British man's injury, the long-awaited fight between the two undefeated world champions took place in May 2024. It was the second time the Englishman returned to Riyadh, where he had been sensationally knocked out by professional boxing debutant Francis Ngannou in his previous fight, en route to a controversial split decision victory.
The historic bout for the absolute champion also ended in a split decision - this time in favour of Usyk, who came particularly close to knocking out the reigning WBC champion in the ninth round. Both fighters were scored 114-113 on the scorecards, but the third judge's verdict was 115-112 in favour of Usyk, who became the first absolute champion with four major titles in the history of heavyweight boxing.