Fury And Usyk Will Fight For A New Undisputed Belt

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will fight for a bespoke undisputed heavyweight championship belt made by Saudi Arabia.
Both men face off on February 17, 2024, for the right to become the world’s undisputed heavyweight champion. Boxing’s last undisputed champion was in 1999 when Lennox Lewis overcame Evander Holyfield. Fury defends his WBC heavyweight title and the lineal championship against Usyk’s WBA, WBO and IBF belts.
Fury has won every belt at heavyweight but has never been undisputed. As for Usyk, he has become undisputed at cruiserweight as he attempts to join Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue by being two-weight undisputed champions. The new undisputed belt will be added to those belts on offer, as shown below.
Fury Vs. Usyk
“Whoever wins the [Fury vs Usyk] fight has got the belt. It’s not one any governing body is going to take away, they don’t have mandatories. The winner is the unified champion, so anyone who fights him will be fighting for that right,” Frank Warren said
Elsewhere on the Fury-Usyk card, Jai Opetaia and Mairis Briedis will face each other in a rematch in Saudi Arabia. Opetaia beat Briedis last year to become the IBF cruiserweight champion of the world. He was set to defend the belt against Briedis again in a mandatory defense.
However, he chose to take on a bout with Ellis Zorro instead of the ‘Day of Reckoning’ boxing event. The fight offered Opetaia the chance to expose himself to a bigger audience in Saudi on the world’s biggest stage. That came at a cost, as the IBF stripped him. This was even though Briedis had agreed to allow Opetaia to take that chance. Naturally, it did not go down well.
Opetaia’s Rise
“It’s very short-sighted of the IBF if they go down this road. Everybody on board, including the number one [Briedis], were all happy for it to take place. But, you know what, the fight is going on. Everybody knows who he [Opetaia] is, they know he’s considered to be the best at his weight out there so we’ll just get on with it and the fight will happen. It’s too big a fight not to happen and it’s too big an opportunity for the fighters not to fight. It [the IBF’s decision] is ridiculous really,” Warren stated
The decision did pay off. Opetaia knocked out Zorro in the first round, showing he belongs at the elite level, making him arguably the best cruiserweight in the world, even if he does not have a belt. He has been linked with a Dmitry Bivol fight, which may play out if the Russian becomes undisputed at 175 pounds in his likely fight against Artur Beterbiev. Opetaia has also spoken fondly of Usyk, indicating his desire to face him. So, the future looks bright for Opetaia if he can continue winning. That all starts with getting another win over Briedis on the Fury-Usyk card.
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