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Tyson Fury Issues Strict Deadline To Make The Usyk Fight: “Let The Games Begin”

Written by Elliot Foster on 24th August 2022.

Tyson Fury and Usyk

Tyson Fury has issued a seven-day deadline to make the fight with Oleksandr Usyk.

The WBC heavyweight champion has a deadline of August 26 – Friday – to confirm his next move, after announcing his retirement earlier this month, before the sanctioning body will consider the status of the green and gold belt and may well make it vacant.

But Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs), who has accepted the challenge of unified world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk to a potential £500million showdown for all the belts in the division, has stated that suitors for the fight have just a week, until September 1, to secure the funds to make the showdown.

Usyk retained the WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO belts last weekend at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia, outpointing Fury’s fellow Brit Anthony Joshua by unanimous decision before calling out ‘The Gypsy King’.

Fury took to Instagram to issue the deadline:

“To all the suitors out there who want to make the fight, I’m going to give you all seven days, till September 1, to come up with the money; if not, thank you very much, it’s been a blast and I’m retired.”

This demand comes just 24 hours after Fury broke his silence on a fight with the ‘Ukrainian dosser’ who he has vowed to relieve of the belts.

Saudi Arabia is leading the race to host the fight which would crown the first undisputed heavyweight world champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999, but even the oil-rich country will struggle to meet Fury’s exorbitant demands.

Fury has long stated that only a pot of half-a-billion pounds would be enough to make a fight with Usyk also posted saying:

“The world’s biggest fight has to be the world’s biggest money.

“If I’m to put [it] all on the line vs. some unknown foreigner, boys better get that half billy.”

Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) became the undisputed cruiserweight champion, cleaning up the 200-pound division before moving up to heavyweight three years ago.

Fury added:

“If not, keep the little mug. If it was AJ [Fury’s fellow Brit Anthony Joshua], it would have been free but it’s not.”

Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum, who looks after Fury’s Stateside affairs, revealed in the aftermath of Usyk’s second win over Joshua that talks to stage what he called “the biggest heavyweight fight since [Muhammad] Ali vs. [Joe] Frazier” were well underway, with December 17 in play as the date for a mouthwatering outdoor clash in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on the night before the FIFA World Cup final in neighbouring Qatar.

Meanwhile, Frank Warren, Fury’s UK promoter, insisted earlier this week that the fight will get made.