The heavyweight title fight will take place on December 21 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Ukrainian WBA, WBC, WBO and IBO champion Oleksandr Usyk will defend his belts in a fight against former unified world champion Tyson Fury. Rematch, which was not expected, but which had to be done.
Will anything change in the reunion? Who is the favorite and why they meet again – we tell you today.
Usyk beat Fury, but goes for a rematch. Even the organizer of the tournament will be against him Oleksandr Usyk’s first fight against Tyson Fury was huge. It’s hard to think of anything more in the heavyweight division over the past many years. So many that the count goes to over twenty.
The world waited for the confrontation, and then received sincere satisfaction from what was happening in the ring. The match really took place. It had emotion, it had quality boxing, a knockdown and a finish that was discussed.
At the same time, there was justice. Twenty-five years ago, justice was not served immediately – Lennox Lewis was initially awarded a draw in a completely won confrontation with Holyfield. And he won only in the rematch.
It is impossible to say that the second confrontation is directly suggested. Tyson and his team tried and still try to explain to the whole world that everything was very close. They say that, if not for the knockdown, Usyk would have lost. And Frank Warren recently said that even a knockdown was not worth counting.
However, in fact, after that fight, there was not a single person who would like to see a second fight without fail. All because Alexander proved everything. He defeated the then British champion, took his titles and won the status of absolute. Fury showed a great fight, but did not manage. It happens like that.
However, the rematch was of interest to the part of the fans-organizers who had and still have a lot of money. Turki Al ash-Sheikh wanted the victory of Tyson Fury – this is obvious to everyone. It’s not just obvious, he said it directly. He needed a match against Anthony Joshua for the absolute championship, but Usyk prevented everything.
Of course, the Fury team only joined the promotion and took advantage of the right to rematch, which was written in the contract. Tyson, of course, needs this fight. Everything is simple. That’s a lot of money. This is a chance to win and take the titles, even if not all. And the main thing is still a chance to make a fight against Anthony Joshua, which cannot be organized for years.
Usyk had two options – retire or agree to a rematch. In fact, no one knows how the contract was written, so maybe there were no options, and Alexander was simply obliged to fight a second time. And maybe not – because the Ukrainian champion himself says that he wants to continue performing and this option is interesting for him.
For revenge, Usyk even gave up one of the titles. Immediately after the first fight, the IBF announced that now the absolute champion should meet the mandatory contender. At that time, he was the British Daniel Dubois.
Usyk was choosing between a young opponent whom he had already knocked out, who gained momentum after that, but would bring less money. And a rematch against an equally, if not more, dangerous visavy, which will bring more funds, and the terms of the contract for the fight with which it will be possible to officially close.
An early knockout victory
Knockout in Usyk’s performance? GGBET predicts an early victory of the champion with a coefficient of 3.5. The fight promises to be spectacular, so keep the boxing line on GGBET!
The choice is obvious for a boxer who plans to continue his performances and defend his belts. Usyk gave up the belt, which was actually played between Daniel Dubois and Anthony Joshua. The first became the champion, knocking out the second even before the middle of the match.
Now Usyk will face both an opponent and the desire of the organizers to arrange a megafight between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois or Wladimir Klitschko. The Ukrainian appeared on this list due to rumors, but Turki Al ash-Sheikh clung to him firmly and stated several times that he would do everything to get a chance for Klitschko.
And Turki directly says that he wants the victory of the British. In one of the promos, Al ash-Sheikh directly tells the Ukrainian that “they are ready” and says that Usyk is breaking his plans because he wants a trilogy. What else to add here?
Who will win? Bookmakers this time are unequivocal – Oleksandr Usyk is the favorite. Before the first meeting, odds were first placed in favor of Fury, then they were equalized, and even closer to the fight, Alexander became the favorite.
This time everything is obvious. You can bet on Oleksandr Usyk at 1.62, on Tyson Fury at 2.35.
Usyk is also the favorite because of the victory in the first match. If he won once, he can do it again – everything is logical. However, there are many questions before the rematch.
There are them before Fury. Will he change anything? For example, gain or lose weight. The second is unlikely. Tyson doesn’t often lose weight, and that’s illogical. He looked quite active at his previous weight, and losing more means losing more stamina.
But you can type. To try to do what everyone around is talking about – to go forward with heavy shots and impress the champion.
They are available to the organizers. It is difficult to say when there were truly scandalous judges’ decisions at tournaments in Riyadh. But in the first meeting, Usyk won only by a split decision of the judges – one of the judges still awarded the victory to Fury with a knockdown. Where is the guarantee that with all that has been said before about Turki’s attitude, Tyson will not be given the victory in an even fight?
There is also to Usyk. Can he get better? Or keep the same level of boxing with a new plan. And will he be able to adjust to the opponent, who may gain even more weight and start mixing boxing with open fighting.
Very interesting.
Source: sport.ua