Oleksandr Usyk's reaction to Tyson Fury being knocked down spoke for everyone
Oleksandr Usyk was an extremely interested spectator at Tyson Fury’s fight against Francis Ngannou in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
Usyk is due to fight Fury for the undisputed heavyweight title and was ringside for the Gypsy King’s bout against former MMA star Ngannou. Fury came through, winning a split decision despite being knocked down in the third round.
One judge scored the fight 95-94 in favour of Ngannou but the other two handed Fury the edge 96-93 and 95-94. It was not a popular decision, with Luke Campbell calling it a "joke" and claiming the judges were guilty of "destroying the sport."
Ngannou was making his professional boxing debut, but impressed, opening up a cut on Fury’s forehead and then dropping him with a left hook. It was a dramatic moment and the crowd inside the Boulevard Hall stadium in Riyadh reacted in shock.
It was the same for Usyk, who was caught on camera by broadcaster TNT Sports raising his eyebrows, putting his hand onto his forehead and opening his eyes wide in surprise. The 36-year-old Ukranian has been waiting for a date to fight Fury for some time – and will have taken confidence from his opponent’s sluggish performance against Ngannou.
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Oleksandr Usyk was shocked to see Tyson Fury knocked down by Francis Ngannou (TNT Sports)Usyk knocked out Britain’s Daniel Dubois to defend his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles in August in Poland. He had come close to agreeing to a fight with Fury at Wembley earlier in the year, but talks broke down.
Fury confirmed he will take on Usyk next. "Listen, it's been going on a long time," Fury told TNT Sport immediately after the pair faced off in the ring following his victory. "We were supposed to fight in April at Wembley, it never happened, let's do the fight over here.
"His Excellency Turki Al-Sheikh is going to put the fight on for all the belts; the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world. Let's go my brother." A fight on December 23 in Saudi Arabia has been suggested, but not confirmed.
Francis Ngannou knocked down Tyson Fury (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)“It's not up to me, I'm a fighter, he's a fighter, I'm sure we'd go now,” Fury added. "Listen, if these guys will sort it all out and it will be on then it will be our next fight guaranteed." Promoter Frank Warren then added: "I don't think the date will be announced yet.
"The fight is wanted, it's done, the fight is on, these guys both won and it's just a matter of now setting a date. Tyson's got a cut there so it's no good saying a date whilst he's got a cut on the top of his head we've got to see how that heals.
"But this fight is on, it's the biggest fight in boxing. Everybody wants to see it and they're going to see it here in Saudi in Riyadh season where it's going to break all Box Office records. This is the biggest fight out there."
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