Bad news to everybody who was waiting for the February 17 fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk that unifies the Heavyweight belts. According to a new report, the biggest fight of the year has been postponed. This is amongst the most disappointing news for all boxing fans around the world, who have been clamoring for this fight to take place since both of these fighters defeated Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua to gain their own belts. But let’s go thought what actually happened that forced this fight to be postponed to a still unknown future date in 2024. For starters, it was Tyson Fury the one responsible for this indirectly.
What happened to Tyson Fury?
According to initial reports, there had already been concerns over Tyson Fury throughout the past few weeks as he has been pushing himself in sparring a little too much. During practice earlier in the week, Fury reportedly suffered a nasty cut during sparring with his in-turn partner. The cut itself required stitches and it has been ruled that he won’t be able to compete two weeks from today. Oleksandr Usyk’s team has already been notified of the issue without getting a potential date for the fight everybody was hoping to watch on February 17. As a result of this, other options are currently being explored for Oleksandr Usyk to still defend his titles on that date.
According to DAZN’s Chris Mannix, Oleksandr Usyk’s team was told that Tyson Fury may require several months until he is ready to fight again. This leaves Usyk in dire need to find a new opponent that has already been explored. According to Boxing News, the rival being considered for Oleksandr Usyk on that same February 17 fight is Filip Hrgovic. That would still maintain the date in Riyadh and Usyk will remain active without stagnating the division. It is still unclear what will happen to Tyson Fury’s belt, which would require to be vacated if he takes too many months to recover from his injury.
Tyson Fury released the following statement after the news broke: “I am absolutely devastated after preparing for this fight for so long and being in such superb condition. I feel bad for everyone involved in this huge event and I will work diligently towards the rescheduled date once the eye has healed. I can only apologise to everyone affected including my own team, Team Usyk, the undercard fighters, partners, and fans as well as our hosts and my friends in Saudi Arabia.”
