Tyson Fury and Oleksander Usyk have agreed to fight each other next in a heavyweight unification bout.
The two fighters currently share all four major heavyweight world titles between them, and the highly anticipated fight would decide the undisputed heavyweight world champion.
Top-rank promoter Bob Arum revealed that both Fury – the WBC champion – and Usyk – the unified WBO, WBA, and IBF heavyweight champion – have now decided to face each other next without taking any fights in between.
“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,” Arum told Sky Sports.
“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,” he continued.
The proposed fight will see the division unified for the first time since Lennox Lewis in 1999.
Earlier this month, Fury successfully defended his title by defeating Derek Chisora via a tenth-round knockout at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
Usyk, on the other hand, defended his WBO, WBA, and IBF titles against Anthony Joshua in August. He won by a controversial split decision in their fight at the Jeddah Superdome, in Saudi Arabia, the second consecutive time he defeated Joshua.
Fury and Usyk are set on having the showdown early in 2023, but the exact date and location are yet to be finalised.
