Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are finally ready to break the heavyweight boxing curse that seemed destined to claim them as victims just last summer. Fury had held the world champion title for three years after defeating Deontay Wilder, while Usyk had taken Anthony Joshua’s crown before outclassing him in a rematch.
The British fighters were on the brink of signing for a major showdown in 2021, but Fury was instead compelled to complete his trilogy with Wilder. Wilder himself had been unable to agree terms with Joshua when they both held the sport’s ultimate prize.
Early last year, Fury’s proposed face-off with Usyk became another casualty when negotiations to host the fight at Wembley fell through at the last minute. Usyk had been pushed to his limits by Fury’s demands, having accepted only 30 per cent of the total fight purse.
However, he rejected the terms offered for a rematch and walked away from the tense negotiations. Frank Warren, Fury’s promoter, said: “If somebody had said to me last August that we’d be doing this I’d say, ‘Yeah, alright,’ I couldn’t have envisaged being here because the fight wasn’t happening.”
However, a pivotal four-hour meeting with Saudi Arabian officials turned the tide, leading to an unexpected fight announcement last September. Tyson Fury’s journey back to the ring is nothing short of extraordinary, starting from a point in 2018 where he tipped the scales at nearly 30 stone. Now, after setbacks in December and February, Fury is poised for his third shot at glory.
Promoter Frank Warren, who took a chance on Fury when Eddie Hearn declined, reminisces: “When he called me about the comeback we had a meeting and it was still there,” as he recalled seeing the determination in Fury’s eyes, a spark that signalled his readiness to return.
“I could see there was a spark there in him. He wanted it and he was determined. He has done bloody brilliantly; he has turned his life around in a big way.”
It seemed that a fight between Fury and Usyk was heading the same way as a series of undisputed showdowns since Lennox Lewis’s reign in 1999.
“It was only maybe a year ago that I was retiring from boxing,” admits Fury, reflecting on a period when the much-anticipated bout with Usyk at Wembley fell through and no other significant challenges loomed on the horizon. “The Usyk fight at Wembley didn’t happen, there were no other big fights. It was like I had come to the end of my tether with it all.”
Warren doesn’t hold back in his praise for Fury’s resilience and achievements, saying: “He has been one of our best boxers and has gone out and done everything that has been asked of him, overcoming demons that most people would never have overcome, let alone go and fight.
“He was a drug addict and a boozer and all that […] and he’s come out of it and gone and won fights, won the title, gone in people’s backyards and done it. Here we are again, he’s fighting a guy who is undefeated.
“These are two guys in their prime and very rarely in the past 30 or 40 years have heavyweights at their best fought each other. This is happening and it’s a tremendous fight. It’s going to be a major moment in sporting history, not boxing history, sporting history.”