Fans were devastated when they heard that the high-profile boxing bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk was rescheduled. Two undefeated champions were going to leave it all out in the ring on February 17th, but that’s not going to be the case anymore.
It’s worth noting that the fight is supposed to happen in Saudi Arabia, which is why the chairman of general authority for entertainment in Saudi Arabia was the one to announce that the fight was delayed. According to him, it’s been pushed back to May 18th. However, despite some fans believing that the fight will inevitably get cancelled, it’s been assured that the bout will take place.
The reason why the fight was delayed was because Fury suffered a cut near his eye in a training session this past weekend. Fury himself has come out to say that he suffered the injury in the fifth round of a 12-round sparring session. The reason that some believe the fight might not happen, is because Usyk has already been discussing staying on the same card and taking on a different fighter to defend his championships. A challenger that has been popping up in discussions was Filip Hrgovic.
Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk Fight Delay Could Impact Other Contenders
Fast forward to March 8th, and there’s set to be a big fight between Anthony Joshua and Francis Ngannou. It’s been rumored that the fight between these two could have title implications, something that might get altered due to Fury and Usyk’s fight being pushed back. It’s now been reported that, if Joshua beats Ngannou, he’d have to get delayed on his own title shot because of a two-way rematch clause in the battle between Fury and Usyk. This could throw Joshua into a bout with Hrgovic instead. All in all, this is disappointing news for the boxing world to hear. Everybody was starting to get ramped up to witness two legendary heavyweight fighters square off in the ring.
Instead, we’ll have to wait a couple more months. The same goes for a few key fighters that were hoping to get a title shot sooner rather than later, with their plans being delayed as well. Hopefully, Fury is able to fully recover from the cut near his eye, and that it won’t impact him if and when the fight against Usyk takes place on the rescheduled date, May 18th.
