Tyson Fury’s American co-promoter Bob Arum says he believes his boxer did enough to deserve the nod over Oleksandr Usyk in their undisputed heavyweight championship bout at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 18.
The 35-year-old Fury 35-1-1 (24) came frustratingly close to defeating Ukrainian southpaw Usyk 22-0 (14), who scored a knockdown in the ninth round to win by scores of 114-113, 113-114 and 115-112.
Former undisputed cruiserweight champion Usyk, 37, added Fury’s WBC belt to his collection of titles that already included the WBA, WBO, IBF and Ring Magazine championships.
“Yeah, the way I looked at it and I was sitting with (fellow co-promoter) Frank (Warren) and after the 10th round, I told him that Tyson has to win one of the next two rounds to win the fight,” Top Rank chief Arum told Sky Sports. “He didn’t win the 11th but he clearly won the 12th round.
“I had the first round for Usyk, then the next six rounds for Tyson. The rest for Usyk except for the last round, which I gave to Fury. I had seven rounds to five, I had Tyson winning by one point, as did one of the judges.”
There was an immediate rematch clause built into the fight contracts and Arum says that England’s Fury is keen to test his mettle against Usyk again.
Whether the fight is for all four major sanctioning body titles though remains to be seen. The IBF is poised to strip Usyk of their belt for failing to defend the title against longtime number one contender Filip Hrgovic, who faces Daniel Dubois next weekend. That fight could be sanctioned for the vacant IBF title if the New Jersey-based sanctioning body takes the belt away from Usyk.
As of writing, nothing is decided yet. Team Usyk have petitioned the IBF for an exemption. No decision has yet been made.
Regardless of the status of the sanctioning body titles, Usyk vs Fury II would pit the best two big men on the planet against each other once again and the prestigious Ring Magazine championship belt would of course be on the line.
“I know Tyson is anxious for the rematch,” Arum continued. “I think probably it will be in November or December because you can’t do it in October. The guys have been training for a whole year and now for them to go back into training makes no sense.
“So I think late November, early December or mid-December would be ideal for the rematch.
“I think the contract provides for Saudi Arabia to do the rematch and the truth is that doing it any place else would be impossible even without the contract because nobody could afford those purses as big a fight as it is.
“And the Saudis are great hosts. I thought the presentation of the event was terrific. So I’m sure the rematch would occur in Saudi Arabia.”
Arum added that he hasn’t given up hope of matching Fury with domestic rival and former two-time unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua 28-3 (25) after the Usyk rematch.
“Talking to Tyson, he wants that fight,” said Arum. “And that fight would certainly belong in Wembley. Hopefully that’s where it would take place.”
