Boxing heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk locked horns in London on Saturday, teasing fight fans with a potential undisputed heavyweight clash after Fury defended his WBC heavyweight belt with ease.
Tyson Fury won a one-sided trilogy bout against Derek Chisora at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before approximately 60,000 spectators.
Oleksandr Usyk, who took the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts from Anthony Joshua at the same venue in September last year, was in attendance to see the Mancunian stop overmatched and weathered veteran Chisora via a 10th round TKO.
Following a short post-fight interview where Fury sang Chisora’s praises, Ukrainian Usyk was then ordered to show his face so that Fury could call him out for a potential megafight in 2023 and scream obscenities in his face.
“Where’s Usyk the rabbit?” Fury asked, before Usyk made his way to the edge of the ring but staying on the other side of the ropes.
“Eh, rabbit? Usyk you’re next you little b**. You are next. Me and you next. You’re next. Rabbit! P****! 15 stone little midget bodybuilder.
“Well I ain’t a bodybuilder, I’m going to write you off,” Fury added, in a dig at Joshua.
“I [have] already done one Ukrainian in [Wladimir] Klitschko didn’t I? And I’ll do you as well, gappy teeth,” Fury further menaced.
“You ugly little man. Let’s get it on, b**. You may laugh now but I’ll end this lil sucker. I’ll end you. You little sucker. What are you gonna do? You’re gonna do f* all you little sausage.”
An unimpressed Usyk barely raised a smile during the one-sided rant as Tyson Fury tried getting under his skin.
Shortly thereafter, contender Joe Joyce muscled his way into the dispute and also called out Fury.
Fury seemed open to taking on WBO interim champion Joyce once he has fought and beaten Usyk, with all three men eventually shaking hands.
Yet there is still a lot to be done in getting the undisputed heavyweight title fight over the line and agreed to by both sides.
Last month, Usyk’s manager Egis Klimas told Seconds Out that “Everything is done from our side – everything” with regards to negotiations.
“So, there’s only one guy who can say, ‘Yes, we’re going [ahead];’ that’s Fury,” Klimas added.
As an orthodox Christian, Usyk has said that he wants the Tyson Fury bout to take place “maybe early February or beginning of March, like March 4,” due to his Orthodox Christian faith.
“During the great fasting before Easter, I do not fight, so it should be all before or then after Orthodox Easter (April 16),” he explained from Lisbon.