Tyson Fury’s rematch against Oleksandr Usyk will take place on December 21 in Saudi Arabia.
Fury suffered the first defeat of his professional career earlier this month as Usyk won via split decision in Riyadh to become the undisputed heavyweight champion.
With his victory, Usyk is now the IBF, WBO, WBA and WBC title holder and is the heavyweight division’s first unified world champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999.
Fury felt he did enough to win the fight, however, two of the three judges were in favour of Usyk after he rocked the Gypsy King in the ninth round with an overhand left which forced referee Mark Nelson to intervene and deliver a standing count.
Fury’s promoter, Frank Warren, had initially cast doubt over a potential rematch between the pair and suggested Fury could opt to retire.
However, it has now been confirmed by Saudi Arabia’s sports hierarchy that a rematch between Fury and Usyk will take place at the end of this year.
A post on X from Turki Alalshikh on Wednesday read: ‘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.’
Oleksandr Usyk is boxing’s first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis (Getty)
Usyk’s manager Alex Krassyuk told talkSPORT: ‘We all gave our go-ahead and it will happen on December 21.
‘It is scheduled to happen on December 21, you never know for sure dealing with our opponents, but we are focused on this day.
‘October was a working date which we regarded as one of the dates, but in our initial agreement we had until the end of the year.’
Confirmation of the rematch also means boxing fans will need to wait another year before a potential fight between Fury and Anthony Joshua.
It had been suggested that Joshua, who was sat ringside to watch Usyk’s historic victory over Fury, could face his fellow Brit if a rematch did not take place.
Joshua’s next fight is expected to be held at Wembley Stadium in September. He is now likely to fight the winner of Deontay Wilder vs Zhilei Zhang, who meet in Saudi Arabia this weekend.
