Frank Warren has confirmed that he still expects Tyson Fury to face Oleksandr Usyk in the early parts of 2024.

The two fighters have not been able to get the undisputed fight on. Talks over a fight in April at Wembley failed to result in an agreement.

This is despite the fact that Usyk had agreed to a 70-30 split against him, which was massive due to the fact that he carried three belts as a united heavyweight champion.

However, the failure to agree to the terms of the rematch meant that the fight never happened. In response, Usyk defended his belt against Daniel Dubois in a controversial ninth-round TKO.

Meanwhile, Fury will face Francis Ngannou on October 28th, 2023. Provided that Fury comes out victorious, Warren still expects the Gypsy King to face Usyk.

Warren On Fury-Usyk

"Well no really because that fight [between Fury and Usyk], we were talking about doing that fight early next year and that is still the plan.

"The plan was that the winner of the fight on Saturday was to fight Tyson [Fury] early next year. So that won’t go on before then. Because of what the bigger picture is, you can’t just cast aside Daniel’s situation. He was unfairly treated there.

"Although all the belts were on the line in the fight, it was the WBA’s turn as far as their mandatory is concerned, so what we’ll do, is we’ll collate our photographic and video evidence and present it to them and present what was said at the rules meeting determining what were legal and what were illegal blows and they’ll have to make a decision," Warren said 

Fury-Usyk Reality

Nevertheless, the chances of that happening are slim. Usyk will most likely be called to face his IBF mandatory, Filip Hrgovic, who has confirmed that he won’t accept step-aside money.

Therefore, that will only push back the date for a Fury fight. In addition, Fury is almost likely to want another fight after Ngannou to prepare for Usyk.

After all, facing a former MMA star who has never boxed is hardly the best preparation for one of the best technical fighters out there. And there is not getting away from that.

Usyk’s Team On Dubois’ Appeal

Meanwhile, Usyk’s promoter Alexander Krassyuk is confident than an appeal by Dubois’ team will not be successful.

Following the fight, Dubois’ team were very vocal that they felt they had been hard done by when the knockdown on Usyk  in the fifth round was deemed a low blow.

The Ukrainian was instead allowed to recover for more than three minutes, as Dubois never had a significant moment after that.

As a result, the Brit was knocked down in the eighth and then stopped in the ninth round as things never got better for the boxer.

Although that may have been the case, Warren did indicate the desire to appeal the decision in the hope of getting it turned into a no-contest. But rather than that getting any traction, Krassyuk was adamant that the appeal would fail.

"This is a boxing match and should be above board, but it was not a low blow. It’s a nonsense, a total nonsense. The governing bodies must order a rematch. He [Dubois] won that, if he had been allowed to carry on, he would have won. We will appeal this. It’s a liberty. "Zero percent or negative probability to be successful," Krassyuk

Boxing Fans React To Usyk

Despite this being the case, not everyone on social media was convinced by team Usyk. A certain subset of the boxing community accused the Ukrainian of buying time by using the alleged low blow for his benefit.

After all, it did give the champion over three minutes to recover from the body shot. As such, Usyk’s actions did raise quite a few talking points.

"The irony. Dubois should be champion right now via 5th round Body shot KO."

"Ooooo wow. What a cheat it’s a trick he uses lol he pretends to be hit below lol to buy time same thing with Joshua."

"Joshua hurt Usyk so bad with a body shot he pretended it was low to buy time. Does he have a glass body, and can Dubois exploit it?"

Ultimately, those comments are only going to raise suggestions that Usyk has a problem taking body shots. And that may be a factor moving forward when opponents face him. Time will tell.

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