Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will fight "before March 2" after according to Fury's promoter Frank Warren.
The Ukrainian was due to fight in the battle of the undisputed fighters on December 23. However, Fury had just come off the back of a tough fight with Francis Ngannou but Warren has confirmed that the fight will absolutely be happening.
“The IBF have given consent for that now and it’s all done," Warren said. "The fight is on. Everybody’s agreed, and it will be announced fairly soon.”
Warren was adamant that Fury would not be fighting Usyk at the end of the year, even if the boxer wanted to. The promoter argued that his fighter had too much going on to realistically meet that date.
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“It’s not just the bruising, it’s also the fact he was in a 12-week camp and he’s got a new baby. It was a tough fight to win so he needs to go home and take a couple of weeks off.
"And then you’ve only got six weeks to train. If the fight against Ngannou had ended early, 23 December would have been a very reliable date. But when Tyson said he was still ready to fight Usyk, I said: ‘You’re not.’”
“Look, you can get somebody becoming very old in boxing overnight. I don’t think it’s the case with Tyson and we’ll find out in his next fight.
"My opinion is that I don’t think anybody expected that from Ngannou. I did expect he would be tough but I genuinely never expected that Ngannou could shape up as a boxer like he did."
