Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will finally battle it out to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2001, and ‘The Lion’ has had his say on who will emulate his achievement.
Lewis captured all the titles when he defeated Evander Holyfied in their rematch in Las Vegas after a controversial draw first time out.
Fans hopes of seeing one ruler in boxing’s blue-ribbon division had started to fade when a deal collapsed earlier in the year due to rematch financials. Usyk went on to defend his WBO, WBA and IBF titles against Daniel Dubois and ‘The Gypsy King’ announced a crossover fight with former UFC champion, Francis Ngannou.
However it appears that, behind the scenes, negotiations have continued and the fight the boxing world has been calling for was this week announced as signed by both teams.
Speaking to Joe earlier in the year, Lewis, didn’t write off Usyk, but ultimately believes ‘a good big guy always beats a good small guy’.
“Usyk cannot be taken lightly, he’s the undisputed champion at cruiserweight and he hasn’t lost snd when he trains for a fight and when he boxes for a fight, there is mental and physical involved so it’s going to be a great fight. He’s not going there to try and lose he’s going there to try and win so whatever he can do to win he will pull out all the stops. I think it’ll be a great fight.
But he’s up against a different man because he’s not up against a 6 foot 7 guy, he’s up against a 6 foot 9 guy that boxes orthodox and southpaw and moves very well around the ring.
I always says a good big guy always beats a good small guy, so there you have it.”
Fury-Usyk will take place in Saudi Arabia sometime during Riyadh season which runs from late October to March 2024, providing the WBC champion gets past Ngannou on October 28 unscathed.