Bob Arum never believed, not even for a split second, that Tyson Fury was retired.
And now that Oleksandr Usyk has emerged victorious from his rematch with Anthony Joshua, the 90-year-old promoter is confident it is a matter of when, not if, a deal will come together for Fury to fight Usyk next for all of boxing’s heavyweight titles. Handlers for Fury and Usyk are in the exploratory stage of negotiations less than a week after Usyk defeated Joshua again, this time by split decision in a 12-round rematch that took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Arum informed BoxingScene.com that he expects an Usyk-Fury fight to be scheduled for some time within the first three months of 2023, which affords them time to perform their due diligence before securing a site. Nevertheless, there’s no other fight, according to Arum, that makes any sense whatsoever for Fury or Usyk to take next.
With eight-figure purses and the opportunity to become boxing’s fully unified heavyweight champion at stake, Arum can’t imagine Fury, the WBC champion, or Usyk, who owns the IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO belts, will want to face anyone else.
“We’re fielding offers right now from sites that wanna do the fight,” Arum told BoxingScene.com. “And then we’ll give it another week or so, get together with both sides and get it put together. There’s no question that is the fight, the only one that makes sense in the heavyweight division. You have two outstanding fighters, neither of whom have ever lost. Both of them, collectively, own all the belts. What better can it be? Nobody would say that if we made the Fury-Usyk fight that either of them should be fighting somebody else. Nobody would say that. Everybody would say that it’s the best fight for either guy.”
Arum’s company, Top Rank Inc., co-promotes Fury (32-0-1, 23 KOs) along with Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions. Usyk is represented by the Klitschko brothers’ company, K2 Promotions, but he is managed by Egis Klimas, who has had numerous fighters – including Usyk’s close friend, Vasiliy Lomachenko – under contract with Top Rank.
“I consider myself a good friend of Usyk,” Arum said. “I’ve been around Usyk for years, since we signed Lomachenko. Usyk and I have a lot of laughs together. I’ve been with him a lot, so yeah, I don’t think it will be difficult putting it together. What we’re waiting for is fielding offers from various sites on the live gate.”
Arum expects organizers from Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East to be among those willing to pay big bucks to bring Fury-Usyk overseas.
“Saudi Arabia I think had a good experience with the last fight that they did,” Arum said in reference to the Usyk-Joshua rematch at Jeddah Superdome. “And Qatar is hosting this enormous World Cup event [in November and December], so they might be interested. And then, I’m sure Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, will be interested. So, yeah, we’ll take all of that into account.
“And there is a lot of interest from people in the United States. I think there’s a group of casinos in Las Vegas that are trying to get together and bring the event to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. So, that’s all up in the air. We’ll all decide what the best deal is. It’ll be in consultation with Queensberry, Frank Warren and his son, George, and the fighters. But we’re in a great position.”
The 6-foot-9, 265-pound Fury figuratively is bigger than ever after attracting a record crowd in excess of 94,000 to Wembley Stadium in London for his sixth-round technical knockout of domestic rival Dillian Whyte (28-3, 19 KOs) on April 23. The undefeated Fury half-heartedly retired yet again earlier this month, only to predictably announce this week that he will fight again.
After what he has seen from Ukraine’s Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) in his back-to-back points victories over England’s Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs), Arum isn’t sure who will win when Fury faces the former undisputed cruiserweight champion.
“I have no idea,” Arum said. “All I know is the first thing you look at is you say, ‘Hey, Fury is so much bigger and he knows how to box. How is Usyk, who is somewhat smaller, how is he gonna deal with it?’ But Usyk has an incredible boxing brain and the heart of an absolute lion. When Joshua, in the ninth round [Saturday night], finally did some damage to Usyk, the way Usyk came back in the 10th round was truly, truly remarkable. He has the same kind of intensity that Tyson has.
“Tyson is always at his best after he experiences adversity. You know, when you knock Tyson down, you better watch out when he gets up because that’s when he’s at his best. The same with Usyk. I thought he was finished in the ninth round. Joshua did a tattoo job on him, and he came back. I had never seen a heavyweight throw that many punches. So, it would be a great fight with Fury and Usyk.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.