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The plan for 2024 still remains a heavyweight title unification fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
That's despite Fury's promoter Frank Warren's plans on appealing Usyk's win over Daniel Dubois this past weekend in Poland. Usyk emerged victorious with a ninth-round TKO win over Dubois — another fighter promoted by Warren.
However, there was plenty of controversy as Usyk was dropped by Dubois with a low blow in the fifth round and was given time to recover by the referee. Replays seemed to indicate it was a legal body shot with Dubois and Warren — as well as many on social media — complaining of a robbery.
Warren has since claimed he will appeal the result on his fighter's behalf, but doesn't believe it will affect any potential fight between Usyk and Fury early next year.
“Well, no really because that fight [between Fury and Usyk], we were talking about doing that fight early next year and that is still the plan,” Warren told talkSPORT (via Boxing Scene). “The plan was that the winner of the fight on Saturday was to fight Tyson [Fury] early next year. So that won't go on before then.
“Because of what the bigger picture is, you can't just cast aside Daniel's situation. He was unfairly treated there.”
All in all, that's good news for boxing fans who have been eager to see Fury and Usyk fight for a while now. The pair were in negotiations over a title unification fight twice earlier this year only for it to collapse on both occasions with both sides blaming the other.
Because of those failed negotiations, Usyk ended up fighting his WBA mandatory in Dubois while Fury is set to box former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou on Oct. 28.
Hopefully, we'll finally get to see the fight in 2024. But given how past negotiations have gone, it wouldn't surprise anyone if they ended up facing different opponents.
Usyk already has an opponent lined up should a fight with Fury not come to fruition in the form of his IBF mandatory Filip Hrgovic.
“Hrgovic is the mandatory but if we're going to get the unification [against Fury] we're going to go for the unification,” Usyk's manager Egis Klimas said recently. “If the unification is not done, of course Hrgovic will be next.”
