The highly anticipated rematch between the renowned heavyweights Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury is confirmed to take place on December 21 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The announcement came from Turki Alalshikh, the head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Fund.
In their previous encounter earlier this month in Riyadh, Usyk and Fury engaged in a fierce battle where Usyk nearly secured a knockout but ultimately secured a close split decision victory, unifying the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC, and WBO world heavyweight titles, and maintaining his undefeated professional record at 22-0. On the other hand, Fury’s record stands at 34-1-1.
After the fight, Usyk remained gracious in victory and did not contest the referee’s decision which potentially prevented a knockout by giving Fury a stand-up count. Usyk confidently stated, “we are the winner … No knockout, no problem.” However, Fury was vocal in his post-fight interviews, implying that the judges’ decision favored Usyk due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Fury’s home country.
Fury was adamant that he believed he had won the fight and mentioned a possible rematch clause for October, even though the scheduled rematch is now set for December.
During the post-fight press conference, Fury expressed, “It’s about getting paid and getting laid. We did that tonight. I thank Oleksandr for the good fight. It was a close fight, you know? I believe I thought I did enough, but I’m not a judge. I can’t judge a fight while I’m boxing it. If they would have said to me in the last round or whatever, ‘You’re down, go out and try to finish him,’ I would have done that. But everyone in the corner believed we were up. All I had to do was just keep boxing, do what I was doing, and I thought we were getting it. But it was what it was. I’m not going to cry about spilled milk.”
