Date set! Usyk, Fury heavyweight rematch confirmed for December 2024

Oleksandr Usyk will face Tyson Fury in a rematch on December 21 in Riyadh, the top Saudi organiser said on Wednesday, after winning their undisputed heavyweight boxing bout earlier this month.

The undefeated Ukrainian won by split decision against Britain's Fury in the Saudi capital on May 19 in the first unification fight of the four-belt era.

"The rematch between the undisputed champion Oleksandr Usyk and the champion Tyson Fury is now scheduled on the 21 of December 2024 during Riyadh Season," Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The rematch between the Undisputed Champion Oleksandr Usyk and the Champion Tyson Fury is now scheduled on the 21 of December 2024 during Riyadh Season...The world will watch another historical fight again...Our commitment to boxing fans continues...We hope you enjoy it...????????

Britain's Lennox Lewis won the last undisputed heavyweight championship against Evander Holyfield in 1999. Both men were ringside as Usyk handed Fury, 35, his first defeat.

The 37-year-old Ukrainian, who briefly served as a soldier after the Russian invasion, was also undisputed champion at cruiserweight and won Olympic, world and European honours as an amateur. 

The ever-bubbling alphabet soup of boxing sanctioning bodies -- the winner in Riyadh becoming the first four-belt heavyweight champion -- means that becoming, and remaining, undisputed champion requires not just skill and toughness in the ring, but acumen outside it.

Usyk joined a select group. Here are six of the undisputed best:

Jack Dempsey (Undisputed champion from Jan 1921 to Sept 1926, 3 defences)

The hard-hitting and aggressive Jack Dempsey became the first official world champion at the start of