16 November 2023 , 20:00
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Tyson Fury isn’t happy with the rearranged date chosen for his mega-fight with Oleksandr Usyk - because it’s ruined his plans for a Christmas booze up.
The WBC heavyweight champion faces the WBA, IBF and WBO champion in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 17 in a monstrous winner-takes-all bout.
Fury had been due to meet the Ukrainian, twice victorious against fellow Brit Anthony Joshua, on December 23. But his crossover fight with former UFC champion Francis Ngannou last month - in which the Gypsy King was dropped to the mat en route to a somewhat controversial win - didn’t go as planned, leaving the Fury camp shocked and calling for his meeting with Usyk to be pushed back into 2024.
Now they have got their wish, but it means Fury will have to change his Christmas plans - with a drinking session with fellow heavyweight Joseph Parker kiboshed.
He admitted: "It wasn’t my ideal date. I wanted the 23rd because then I could have had a good Christmas and now I am going to have a s*** Christmas. I can’t go and get 4st heavier now, like I would like to.
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“This date will keep me in shape and give me something to think about. It’s only a few weeks after so not too bad. I will still have a proper Christmas day with the family, it’s not that serious that I have to cancel Christmas is it?
“Me and Joe Parker usually go to the boozer next door, while the dinner is getting made, and have 15 pints. But this time he can do it and I can’t because he will be celebrating his win on the 23rd and I will still be in camp.”
The winner on February 17 will be crowned the division’s first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000. And Fury insists it will be him.
“I am going to bust him, ugly little man, sausage,” said Fury at a press conference on Thursday night. “He is fighting the best British man there has ever been.
“He is like a little p**** with an earring. I am going to knock that sausage out cold.
“He is a good boxer, he is slick, but I have seen those before and they struggle with a big man and I will break him, for sure. He beat bums before, he’s a middleweight and when he fights a man of my size, he’s f*****".
Join the debate! Who do you think will become undisputed: Fury or Usyk? Let us know here.