Saudi promoter Turki Alalshikh is planning to stage the rematch between heavyweights Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk on October 12th or 13th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The two unbeaten champions will be fighting on May 18th for the undisputed heavyweight championship at the Kingdom Arena in Ryadh.
Rematch Concerns
Given Fury’s injury problems, it might be a little presumptuous on Alalshikh’s part to assume that he’ll be able to make it back into the ring by October for a rematch with Usyk.
Fury is an old 35 and has a lot of miles on the odometer from the punishment he absorbed in his three fights with Deontay Wilder.
Those were not easy highway miles for Fury. It’s a tall order to get Fury back in the ring for the rematch with Usyk by October.
Fury-Usyk has a rematch clause for their May 18th fight, so the loser is expected to activate it to force a second fight. This could be bad for the boxing public if the fight on May 18th is a blowout or boring, and the chances are it could be one of those two things.
The worst thing that could happen is for Usyk to win both fights with Fury, which would put the Saudis in a situation of deciding whether to have Tyson fight Anthony Joshua off of consecutive losses or go with Oleksandr as his opponent.
Fury vs. Joshua: A Potential Blockbuster
Excellency Turki Alalshikh told ESPN that he’s interested in making a fight between Fury and former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua for March of next year. There’s no word whether that fight would be dependent on one or both of those fighters having won their previous matches.
If Fury loses one or both of his two fights against Usyk, it wouldn’t be as interesting for fans to see him be the one who faces Joshua in March 2025. However, given the UK fan interest in seeing Fury and Joshua fight, I guess it doesn’t matter if Tyson or AJ are coming off a loss.
Joshua doesn’t have an opponent yet, but he could fight Filip Hrgovic for the IBF title once it’s stripped from the winner of the Fury vs. Usyk fight.
Read the full article here
