Oleksandr Usyk is hoping his undisputed heavyweight world title fight with Tyson Fury can take place in Saudi Arabia in February once the Briton has recovered from a bruising 10 rounds with boxing novice Francis Ngannou.
Contracts were signed in September but a proposed December 23 date in Riyadh looks sure to slide since WBC champion Fury's near-defeat to former UFC champion Ngannou in a non-title bout on October 28.
Ukrainian Usyk holds the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts and both he and Fury are unbeaten. Speaking to Reuters from his training camp in Valencia, Spain, Usyk said the date should be decided next week. "It could be February and I would very much like it to be February," he said, through an interpreter. "I was ready to fight on the 23rd [December] but since Fury got some injuries in the last fight, a knockdown, then probably it will be postponed to next year." The long-awaited on-off fight would crown the first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999 and the first of the four-belt era, and Usyk made clear he would take the delay in his stride. "I'll just do more technical work.
Technically, nothing changes. I just have a little more time for some additional tasks, and that's it," he said. "I don't think about Tyson Fury at all...