London, United Kingdom (UK)– Current WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and the current WBA, IBF, WBO, and IBO champion Oleksandr Usyk are reportedly in talks for a showdown which is set to take place in March next year in Saudi Arabia.
After Fury beat Dillian Whyte in April, and Usyk saw off Anthony Joshua for the second time four months later, it appeared that a clash between the pair could take place before the end of the year.
However, Usyk quickly made it clear that he wanted more time to prepare for that fight and revealed he had no intention of returning to the ring until 2023. As a result, Fury has taken a stay-busy fight in the meantime, which will see him face fellow Brit, Derek Chisora for the third time on December 3 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“I am not preparing for Usyk at all. I will train for him for two weeks. I do not rate him. People keep going on about Usyk, why couldn’t he do anything with Chisora when they boxed? I am going to splatter him. How is he going to do anything with me? He is not,” said Fury.
In addition, Fury who has announced his retirement on more than one occasion only to come back a few weeks later, said he would need to have medical assistance to come out of retirement as he cannot do without boxing.
“I don’t think I can live a normal life. I feel I need medical help to be able to do that and if there is somebody out there who could help me, I would love them to get in touch.
I won’t be able to leave this game and have a normal life unless I am brain-trained to do that because normal life is out of order for me. I will just keep going, keep fighting. I am going to have three fights next year, starting in February with Usyk and if he wants a rematch, he can have a rematch. Then someone at the back end of the year Deontay Wilder if he is mandatory, Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois, there’s plenty of British beef to go after Chisora,” said Fury.
Meanwhile, Usyk’s assistant trainer, Sergey Lapin, said Fury is at the top of their list, though Usyk has a lot of options to consider in 2023.
“Usyk has already recovered from the fight with Anthony Joshua, he is keeping himself in shape and is currently engaged in charity work. He is also waiting for the chatterbox Tyson Fury to finally have the courage to enter the ring with him.
In the meantime, Fury fights Derek Chisora. This is not an interesting fight, who will like this fight? Tyson is looking for easy fights.
Deontay Wilder is a name that has been mentioned. Usyk does not fear Wilder. From Wilder’s last fight, I didn’t see anything new. This guy is very simple. He goes out and hits and he has a very strong punch. He compensates for his lack of technique.
Next year, the fight for the title of undisputed world champion against Tyson Fury is our priority. This is the main goal, but if this does not happen for whatever reason, then I hope that there will still be some very interesting fights ahead. Oleksandr could, for example, return to the cruiserweight division but only if he has a fight with Saul Alvarez. That is the only fighter that Usyk would come back down to the cruiserweight for,” said Lapin.
