Frank Warren, who co-promotes Tyson Fury, explains why the undisputed heavyweight championship fight with Oleksandr Usyk has to take place on May 18 and why he is so confident that Fury will emerge victorious; "He's the master of taking advantage of any weakness," Warren said of Fury
Sunday 11 February 2024 07:26, UK
The Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undisputed heavyweight title fight "has to happen" on its new date of May 18.
Fury and Usyk were due to fight on February 17 for the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight championships, all four of the major belts.
But Britain's Fury sustained a cut above his eye in sparring and had to pull out of the fight last week.
Their undisputed heavyweight championship fight, which will be the first in over two decades and is the first of the 'four-belt era,' has now been rescheduled for May 18.
Frank Warren, Fury's co-promoter, is certain the fight will go ahead on that date, especially as both boxers want their opportunity to compete for undisputed status.
"Cuts and blood always look bad wherein a couple of weeks they can look much different," he told the Toe2Toe podcast.
"If he's confident, I'm confident. He's not going to set himself a date that's going to fall apart.
"We've got governing bodies pressurising because they want to see the belts being fought for so it's a matter of it has to happen on that date.
"I'm quite confident it will do."
Warren also has faith that the cut won't disrupt Fury's camp for the rearranged fight.
"He's had bad cuts before. He feels that it will be healed up in the next couple of months and that will give him six weeks preparation," the promoter said.
"Contrary again to all the ridiculous rumours he was in magnificent shape. You've only got to look at some of the photos of him to see.
"He's now got another date to aim for and that's where he's at. I think the general mood of the camp is they can build on all the good work they've done. It's not unusual in boxing.
"There are stacks of fights over the years that have been delayed."
Fury might have had a more difficult than anticipated 10-rounder with former MMA fighter Francis Ngannou last year but Warren has no doubts that Fury poses a severe threat to Usyk, especially after the Ukrainian appeared to struggle at times in his recent title defence against Daniel Dubois.
"He has previous for complaining and moaning when he gets caught to the body," Warren said. "Now he's in there with a guy who is the master of taking advantage of any weakness"
He did though call for the fight's referee to be "strong".
"He does it a lot Usyk, he 'crybabies' to the ref. He's had previous for it about body shots. As long as the referee's strong in that I'm really happy and I'm even more confident in Tyson in this fight than I was prior to [Usyk] fighting Daniel Dubois," Warren said.
"I believe in Tyson. I've believed in him since day one.
"I genuinely think that he's the best heavyweight out there."
