Saudi promoter Amer Abdallah of Saudi’s Skill Challenge Entertainment says he plans to put together two fights involving heavyweights Anthony Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder and Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury in December on the same night.
At this point, Abdallah says “nothing is concrete” with those two contests, but he’s confident it will happen. He says it won’t be part of a tournament structure. It’s two fights that his promotional company wants to stage.
“I will say there’s no tournament. Are those fights [Fury vs. Usyk & Joshua vs. Wilder] in play? Of course, they’re in play,” said Amer Abdallah of Saudi’s Skill Challenge Entertainment to Boxing King Media.
“It’s just a matter right now of when Prince Khadid decides that once he wants to do the fight and has determined when to do the fight, I assure you that I’ll receive the phone call, and he’ll tell me to make the fights happen, and I’ll reach out to those four parties that we have a great relationship with, as we do with every promoter in the business and we’ll make the fights happen.”
Will Fury be a problem?
With Fury being one of the fighters involved, it’s a question mark whether he’ll be the stumbling block to this two-fight deal getting done. Yesterday, Fury denied there were any talks underway for his fighting in December in Saudi Arabia.
It’s unclear whether WBC heavyweight champion Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) will be willing to take a risky fight against IBF/WBA/WBO champ Usyk because he’s become very slow on his feet in the last few years, and he could lose to the talented Ukrainian.
Also, Fury could price himself out by demanding more money than the Saudis are willing to give, especially if he’s expecting to receive more dough than Joshua. If that’s a condition for Fury taking part in the event, he may need to be eliminated and replaced by a go-getter like Zhilei Zhang.
“Until then, nothing is concrete. There isn’t any set date,” continued Abdullah. “There aren’t any fights that are set. They’re all potential fights that are interesting fights.
“Prince Khalid does things that are over the top, and that’s what he’s going to continue to do, and that’s what Skills Challenge will continue to do. The heavyweight division is one that we’re always interested in.
“Are we entertaining those fights [Joshua-Wilder & Fury-Usyk]? Of course, we are. Price Khadid said, ‘These are the fights that I want,’ and he identified four or five major fights that he wanted. I told him that we can easily get those done. He said, ‘Once we’re ready to go, I’ll be back in two weeks, and we’ll put the plan in place,” said Abdullah.
