Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury Heavyweight Championship Rematch Set For Dec. 21

Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury are set to run it back.

There is a slight delay in the timeline but the undisputed heavyweight championship rematch is on course for December 21. The second act will take place at the same site of their May 18 instant classic in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“The rematch… is now scheduled on the 21 of December 2024 during Riyadh Season,” Turki Alalshikh, chairman of General Entertainment Authority, announced on Wednesday. “The world will watch another historical fight again. Our commitment to boxing fans continues.”

https://x.com/Turki_alalshikh/status/1795749075113107734

Ukraine’s Usyk (22-0, 14 knockouts) edged England’s Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) via split decision to fully unify all the major heavyweight titles. The pair of then-unbeaten elite boxers entered an agreement that called for an immediate rematch, regardless of how the first fight played out.

Fortunately, it was a memorable twelve-round clash worthy of a sequel.

Usyk had Fury badly hurt and was credited with a knockdown late in the ninth round. The sequence was part of a memorable second half surge to overcome an early deficit. It was enough to prevail on two of the three scorecards to defend his RING championship for the second time. Usyk also retained his WBA, IBF and WBO titles and claimed Fury’s WBC crown.

The feat crowned the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the 21st century. Fury, 35, The Ring’s No. 1 rated heavyweight, exercised his rematch clause. Usyk, 38, followed suit and filed an exception with the IBF in lieu of a mandatory title defense.

There were concerns that the physical damage Usyk sustained in the fight was too severe to proceed with a planned mid-October rematch. A two-month delay to those plans should provide enough time for the championship fight to land in the heart of Riyadh Season.

There is a question of whether the stakes will remain the same.

Usyk was due to next face IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic (17-0, 14 KOs), No. 6 at heavyweight. Pre-fight rumors called for the Usyk-Fury winner to be stripped of the IBF belt. That development would have allowed the vacant title to be at stake for Hrgovic’s showdown with Daniel Dubois (20-2, 19 KOs) this Saturday in Riyadh.

The IBF has yet to rule on the matter, and the decision may not come until after this weekend.

There is the possibility of an interim IBF title being made available for Hrgovic-Dubois. That compromise would allow Usyk to enter the Dec. 21 rematch as the undisputed champion.

Usyk, The Ring pound-for-pound king, previously held the Ring/undisputed cruiserweight championship. The Ukrainian southpaw joined Claressa Shields, Terence Crawford,  Katie Taylor and Naoya Inoue on the short list of two-division undisputed champions in the four-belt era. Crawford, Taylor, Inoue and Usyk have all achieved it within the past ten months.

The win over Fury saw Usyk advance to 6-0 as a heavyweight. His title reign began with a Sept. 2021 victory over Anthony Joshua (27-3, 24 KOs) in North London to become the unified WBA/IBF/WBO titlist.

Fury was 5-0 in championship fights spanning two reigns prior to his defeat to Usyk.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Follow @JakeNDaBox