Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk are finally getting ready to step into the ring to determine which one of them will become the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the world. This fight was originally supposed to happen in February of 2024, however, Tyson had to pull out after his eye was cut while sparring.
Now this fight is set to take place on May 18th, 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as the main event of the Ring of Fire event. This is the second show that Saudi Arabia will be running under a themed name, the first being Day of Reckoning, which took place in December 2023.
This bout will be a 12-round fight, where the WBC, IBF, IBO, WBA, and WBO Heavyweight Championships will be on the line. Usyk was a former Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion, though he vacated his titles as he was moving up to heavyweight. The heavyweight division has seen multiple undisputed champions before, but this will be the first time a heavyweight will hold all four World titles at once.
Date, Start Time, Location:
Promoter: Queensberry Promotions
Date: Saturday, May 18th, 2024
Location: Kingdom Arena, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Prelims: 10:00 AM EST
Main Card: 1:00 PM EST
Main Event: 5:10 PM EST
Main Card:
Tyson Fury (34-0-1) vs Oleksandr Usyk (21-0) – Undisputed Heavyweight (12 x 3)
Jai Opetaia (24-0) vs Mairis Briedis (28-2) – IBF World Cruiserweight (12 x 3)
Joe Cordina (17-0) vs Anthony Cacace (21-1) – IBF, IBO World Super Featherweight (12 x 3)
Sergey Kovalev (35-4-1) vs Robin Safar (16-0) – Cruiserweight (10 x 3)
Mark Chamberlain (15-0) vs Joshua Oluwaseun Wahab (23-1) – Lightweight (10 x 3)
Frank Sanchez (24-0) vs Agit Kabayel (24-0) – Heavyweight (10 x 3)
Daniel Lapin (9-0) vs Octavio Pudivitr (9-1) – WBA Continental Light Heavyweight (10 x 3)
Fury vs Usyk: Preview
Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) is the current WBC World Heavyweight Champion, perhaps the most coveted title in that division. However, Usyk (21-0, 14KOs) holds the other three major championships at Heavyweight, those being the IBF, WBA, and WBO Championships. Usyk is also the current IBO World Heavyweight Champion.
In his last outing, Tyson Fury defeated Francis Ngannou via split decision, a fight that was deemed very controversial as many believed that the MMA icon did enough to win the fight. Besides that win, Fury has garnered clean victories over top fighters such as Deontay Wilder, Wladimir Klitschko, and Dillian White.
Usyk, although not as impressive of a resume, has also gotten some great wins over some of the best fighters in the division. He’s had two wins against Anthony Joshua, a knockout on Daniel Dubois, and has been the first loss on four clean records.
Co Main Event: Opetaia vs Briedis
The Co-Main Event of this event will be a 12-round fight between Jai Opetaia (24-0, 19 KOs) and Mairis Briedis (28-2, 20 KOs) for the vacant IBF World Cruiserweight Championship. Opetaia held the title before vacating in December 2023 but will compete for it again at this event.
These two have fought each other before in July of 2022 for that same championship, in which Opetaia took the decision victory after a great performance. He then went on to rack up two more wins, one by KO and the other via TKO, both against undefeated contenders. Briedis has not competed since his last fight against Opetaia, so it will be interesting to see if anything has changed after this nearly two-year layoff.
Briedis’ two losses came both via decision, one against Oeptaia, and the other against Oleksandr Usyk while he was competing in the cruiserweight division.
Jai has yet to be defeated in the 200-pound division, and it would take a great performance from Briedis if he wants to take away that undefeated record. It could be very likely that he will move up in weight soon, although nothing has been confirmed.
About The Author
Shayan Malik has always been an avid fan of sports. He is currently studying sports communication, as he is hoping to take his sports knowledge to the next level. He enjoys writing about combat sports such as MMA and Pro Wrestling, as well as Boxing.
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