It’s hard to keep up with the Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk drama. On Friday, the boxing world was shaken to its foundations when the February 17 date was canceled due to Fury suffering a horrific cut to his right eye during sparring. Well, fear not because the pair are now scheduled to face each other in Riyadh on May 18.
The first undisputed heavyweight championship fight in a quarter of a century that fell apart on 16 days’ notice nearly broke the Internet. Furious detractors went crazy, some accusing the WBC champion of cutting himself out of the fight or blaming him for training two weeks away from the fight (which is standard).
Even when images of the incident emerged, they did little to quell conspiracy theorists.
Well, the good news (and we needed it) is that the fight is back.
“We have a new fight date,” Fury said on his official Instagram account. “A huge thank you to Turki Alalshakh for making this new date possible so quickly. In life, sometimes shitty things happen, but you never let it get to you. You always keep moving forward. Look at that bastard over there [shows cut]. A nice elbow right in the eye almost cost me the biggest fight of my life, but what can you do? Bad things happen.
“Usyk is crying his eyes out: ‘Tyson should retire,’ or he wants to retire. There is no retirement here, son of a bitch! They will knock you out! Spark knocked out. May 18, the new date, live and exclusive from Saudi Arabia. Arabia, Riyadh, season. Just thought I’d let you know what time it was.
When the fight was canceled on Friday, there were rumors that Usyk might accept another assignment, possibly against IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic.
However, Fury revealing the new date means fans will get what they want. As always, they are forced to wait.
