In not at all shocking but still interesting news, Mike Coppinger, via his “sources” has revealed that the recently signed heavyweight unification super fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk contains a rematch clause. The two-way clause can be activated by the losing fighter (if there is an actual winner and loser… draw, anyone?). So, it seems that, unless we see either a blowout scored by one man, or a fight so dull nobody wants to watch a sequel, these two currently unbeaten heavyweight champions will fight not once but twice.
Heck, we could conceivably see a trilogy, who knows. As fight fans do know, the talked of date for the fight is December 23, this reliant on Fury coming out of his October 28 clash with MMA giant Francis Ngannou unscathed. If Fury does not feel able to fight two days before Christmas Day, the fight will, we are told, happen some time in January. There are, however, plenty of sceptics out there who remain unconvinced this fight actually happens, either in December or in January.
Still, with more details coming out, such as this nugget from Coppinger, there is reason to believe the fight we all want to see WILL happen.
Interestingly, if there is an immediate rematch between Fury and Usyk, the IBF belt that is currently held by the southpaw from Ukraine will not be on the line. As per the news story from ESPN, who current IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic spoke with:
“The IBF wrote that if I won my last fight and if Usyk beat Daniel Dubois that the IBF world enforce my mandatory status to fight Usyk for the title,” Hrgovic said. “The IBF has now allowed Tyson Fury and Usyk to do a unification first. The winner of that fight is mandated to fight me immediately after with no other intervening fight, so I expect to fight for the heavyweight championship early next year. I’m disappointed by the delay, but I will stay ready and I won’t let it distract me from my goal of winning the title. Whether against Usyk or Fury, my time is coming.”
All well and good, and fair for the deserving Usyk, but if the Fury-Usyk fight is a great one, or a controversial one, fans will be far more interested in seeing the rematch than in seeing Hrgovic get his shot at the winner (again, if there is one). Hrgovic may well have to wait quite a lot longer than early next year for a shot at either Usyk or Fury, with him facing a TBA for the vacant IBF belt perhaps being a more likely scenario. We must wait and see how things play out.
In this regard – who wins Fury-Usyk fight-one? And will there be any need for a rematch?
