By Charles Brun: Oleksandr Usyk’s manager Egis Klimas confirmed that his undisputed heavyweight championship fight against Tyson Fury will take place no earlier than February 18th and no later than March.
If it doesn’t occur by that point, IBF, WBA & WBO champion Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) will likely move on to bigger & better things, perhaps against Deontay ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Wilder or Canelo Alvarez.
Usyk doesn’t have time to waste messing around trying to put a fight together with Fury if the big 6’9″ WBC champion is going to play games with the negotiations.
Klimas points out that Fury chose not to wait a few months to face Usyk next. Instead of waiting, Fury decided to fight journeyman Derek Chisora on December 3rd, potentially putting the Usyk clash in jeopardy for early 2023.
If Fury suffers an injury against Chisora, it’s going to ruin Usyk’s plans for an early undisputed clash against him next year.
Although Fury-Chisora is a dreadful mismatch on paper, there’s always the possibility that Fury could suffer a bad cut or an injury to his shoulder, biceps, or hands.
“Anything coming from Tyson Fury’s mouth doesn’t mean s**t,” said Egis Klimas to ID Boxing. “I think it’s not going to be a hard fight for Tyson Fury. What, is he fighting for the third time?” said Klimas when asked about his thoughts on Fury fighting 38-year-old journeyman Derek Chisora on December 3rd. “It shouldn’t be any different.
“No earlier than the 18th of February, no later than the 4th of March,” said Klimas when asked when Fury vs. Usyk will take place.
“Right after the [Anthony Joshua] fight, Usyk said, ‘Tyson, let’s unify the titles. Let’s fight.’ Then Tyson came back and wanted to dictate.
“He said, ‘Let’s fight until the end of the year,’ and Oleksandr’s position was, ‘Look, I’ve been preparing for this fight with Joshua for a long time. I need to get recovery, I need to prepare for the fight, and I need to go serve back in my country. I have things to do on the frontlines.
“‘I can’t go jump from camp to camp and start training again. In that case, let’s do that fight in February. I’m ready to come out in February and fight.’ Instead of waiting for a couple of months, Tyson decided he wanted to go and wanted to fight in a busy fight, a ‘keep me in shape’ fight.
“But it’s fine; let him do it. On our side, everything is done. We agreed with the promoters, let’s put together, let’s move forward. The only one holding that right now is under Tyson Fury decision,” said Klimas.
