True to form, Oleksandr Usyk did his best to make light of a serious topic. His brief staredown with future opponent Derek Chisora ended with the two posing for a selfie and with the unbeaten former cruiserweight king spraying the air in his effort to ensure a sterile environment.
The sign of the times was a reminder of how a minor injury helped avoid his fight falling prey to a major global crisis.
Ukraine’s Usyk (17-0, 13KOs) will return to England for the second time in his past three bouts, when he faces a local heavyweight trialhorse in Chisora (32-9, 23KOs) atop a May 23 card to air live on Sky Sports Box Office from The O2 Arena in Manchester, England. The bout was formally announced on Friday, ending weeks of speculation as to his next step and with the press conference coming right around the targeted timeframe for this bout to have initially taken place.
“This fight was going to be March 7 or March 28 and March 28 was the more solid date,” Eddie Hearn, managing director of Matchroom Boxing told Behind The Gloves’ Michelle Joy Phelps. “I’m so happy it didn’t work out that way, because March 28 (David Avanesyan vs. Josh Kelly) is 50/50 right now.”
The initial delay was caused by a stubborn—but rightful—stance taken by Usyk, who is one of several mandatory challengers in waiting for unified heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua (23-1, 21KOs). A development arose last December, when handlers for Usyk and Bulgaria’s Kubrat Pulev (28-1, 14KOs) pledged their case for who deserved first crack at England’s Joshua, who regained his slew of heavyweight titles in a 12-round win over Andy Ruiz.
Hearn did his best to offer a Chisora fight as a consolation prize to Usyk in exchange for allowing Joshua to proceed with his mandated title defense versus Pulev, which will now take place on June 20. Usyk eventually gave in, though a matter of landing a 1st quarter date proved problematic.
Plans to get them in the ring in early March transitioned to late March, before—as previously reported by BoxingScene.com—Usyk was advised by medical experts to delay his ring return by 6-8 weeks in order to rehabilitate past injuries. The now 33-year old southpaw injured his left elbow which delayed his eventual win in the World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight final and undisputed championship showdown versus Murat Gassiev in 2018; and a torn right biceps injury suffered a year ago, thus delaying his foray into the heavyweight division.
The latter forced Usyk to go 11 months between fights, returning last October in a 7th round stoppage of late replacement Chazz Witherspoon in a successful heavyweight debut. The last thing anyone on his team wanted was to stall his career any longer, but health came first—and in more ways than one.
The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis has shut down events around the world, with several Matchroom Boxing dates due to take place in the next few weeks now in jeopardy. Included among them is the aforementioned March 28 show which this fight was once supposed to headline.
“They had a little bit of an elbow problem, nothing major getting a bit of physio, couldn’t start camp,” acknowledged Hearn. “I didn’t know whether they were just sort of playing me just to not fight Chisora. I was like ‘Are you really going to do this?’”
With the date now 11 weeks out, the chances of ‘doing this’ are now far greater than any other event scheduled before that time.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox