Fury Vs. Usyk ‘Will Not Happen In December’

The main event for a proposed night of superfights in Saudi Arabia may no longer be happening, according to reports from the boxing press.

For months the boxing media has been talking about a night of superfights in Saudi Arabia this December. The original plan was Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship, with Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder in the co-main event.

Those are two huge fights, each headliners in their own right. To have them both on the same night? Insanity. Reports had Saudi promoter Skill Challenge ready to shell out nearly half a billion dollars in purse money, so finances wouldn’t get in the way of this event going down. But not everything is about money, apparently.

In a new talkBoxing episode, talkSport reporter Scott Jordan (who was one of the first to break news about the superfight event in December) revealed that Tyson Fury is probably not going to participate in the event.

“I’ve been told that there’s no way Tyson Fury’s fighting in Saudi in December,” Jordan said. “And that there’s a long way between this fight being made, these fights being made. I was the one that initially spoke in principle about the four fights fighting in this superfight situation in December. There’s no offers been made. Now, those offers can be made relatively quickly, but they haven’t been made.

“Discussions are ongoing, but I’ve been told by relatively reliable sources that this is not happening in December. This will not happen in December.”

Spencer Oliver countered that it still looked like Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder was coming together for that date, and the gap in the card made it more likely for former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou to get in on the action.

“Well, I think Joshua vs. Wilder goes on in December regardless,” he said. “And we may get Derek Chisora vs. Ngannou, which is another talking point.”

“That may well be,” Jordan replied.

What the hell is going on with Tyson Fury that he’d turn down the biggest fight of the year on the biggest event of the year for the biggest payday perhaps in all of boxing history? “The Gypsy King” hasn’t made any recent comments about the December event in Saudi Arabia, so for now we’re left in the dark by this sudden change of directions in the heavyweight boxing scene.