Undisputed heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk is to renew hostilities with Tyson Fury in December and now his promoter has responded to the news of the rematch.
The first fight was an engaging battle over 12 rounds with plenty of back and forth and even a knockdown in the ninth round that saw Fury falling about the ring. Usyk ran out the points winner to lift all four major world titles and now they are to do it all again on December 21st.
Speaking to talkSport Boxing, Usyk’s manager Alex Krassyuk confirmed the date of the rematch.
“This is the date we were looking at and this is the date we confirmed with His Excellency and we gave our word on it so it’s going to happen on December 21st. It is scheduled to happen on December 21st but dealing with our opponent you never know how it works so we are focussed not his date.”
He was asked why the original October date for the rematch was put back.
“Well that was a working date which we regarded as one of the possible days to put on the event but in our initial agreement, we had a time limit to the end of the year so it corresponds to our initial agreement. We never had any talks about Usyk’s retirement. There were maybe rumours, maybe someone else was giving their thoughts but we never discussed it. This issue is not an issue for us.”
He was asked if rumours of a broken orbital bone for Usyk were true.
“No, this is not true, as I spoke at the post-fight conference I gave some explanation. He had an old injury, his tooth implant on the upper jaw was injured again so he took all the medical prescriptions and now he’s recovering from that. “
Then he was asked if the announcement of the rematch came as a surprise.
“Well, the thing I like dealing with His Excellent is we never dealt. Whatever we decided we got straight to the media and that’s the best thing that boxing can have nowadays.”
Finally, it was put to him that should Usyk win the rematch he would have nothing to prove and could retire.
“This is always a decision of the fighter. When he feels he has nothing to prove, when he feels he doesn’t want to wake up at 5 in the morning and do three trainings in a day, if he’s fed up with that then it’s probably time for him to hang up his gloves.”
The countdown to this already much-anticipated rematch has already begun though some people don’t think it will happen.
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