By: Sean Crose
In a bit of good news for fans, the Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk undisputed heavyweight championship matchup has been rescheduled for May 18th in Saudi Arabia. The much anticipated bout was supposed to go down next week, but after Fury suffered a major gash over his eye in sparring, the fight had to be postponed. Appearing on Ariel Helwani’s podcast over the weekend, both Fury and Usyk announced to the world that a new fight date of May 18th had been agreed to. What was surprising about the announcement was that it came within days of Fury’s injury proposing the fight. To say boxing generally moves at a more glacial pace would be an understatement.
As of Monday, Fury had flown back to his native Britain in order to heal and to no doubt prep in any way possible for his spring throwdown with Usyk. “WE HAVE A NEW DATE MAY 18th,” Fury stated in a social media post, one in which he also praised Saudi Arabia’s head of the General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, “cant wait to smash the rabbit. massive respect to my brother @Turki_alalshikh the biggest fight of the century. Its always about the GK TYSON FURY ROLLES ON.”
Helwani asked Fury if he sees the delay as a blessing in disguise. “It’s not a blessing in disguise,” the towering Englishman responded, “but I take God’s will as it comes. I was in fantastic shape, ready to fight. I was 100 percent confident I was going to knock Usyk out. There was no doubts in my mind. I was 100 percent ready.” For his own part, the easygoing Usyk played things cool in the interview, which got a bit heated between Fury and his promoter, Egis Klimas. “I will do training,” Usyk said simply when asked about this immediate plans.
