Tyson Fury calls for Christmas clash with Oleksandr Usyk for undisputed heavyweight championship | Boxing News

Tyson Fury has confirmed he will probably be able to combat Oleksandr Usyk in an undisputed heavyweight championship clash on December 23.

It’s a brief turnaround for Fury, who has his first contest of 2023 on Saturday, albeit one in opposition to a blended martial artist, former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.

But he’s adamant he can tackle Usyk for the unified WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles on two days earlier than Christmas.

“We’ve signed the contracts,” Fury instructed Sky Sports. “December 23, that’s out there isn’t it? It’s only eight weeks away from Saturday. Why not?

“I’ve not even had a combat this yr so get two in earlier than the top of the yr can be incredible. Double payday,” he continued. “There’ll be a pleasant massive turkey within the Fury family this Christmas.

“If it happens December 23, I’ll be playing that song, Driving Home For Christmas, I won’t land back in the UK till Christmas Eve, late Christmas Eve and if we get a delay I’ll be spending Christmas with the reindeers in the airport!”

Boxing wants to alter

The contest with Usyk has been a very long time within the making and Fury has made no secret of his frustration with the enterprise of boxing.

“You very rarely get two undefeated champions fighting each other and when you do it’s like every 10 years,” he mentioned. “[Usually] you know who’s going to win before they’ve even fought, it’s a pointless thing… I’m a boxing fan. I’ve been a boxing fan my whole life and even I’m pretty sick of it.”

He defined: “So something needs to change. In UFC the best fight the best, the contenders – No 10 will fight No 11, No 4 will fight No 3 and No 1 will fight No 2.

“I don’t think [boxing’s] ever been like that. Sometimes you get the best fighting the best but there’s always been a build-up of cannon fodder all the way through their careers. Like for their first 20 fights they didn’t fight anybody. That sort of behaviour. In the UFC they don’t do that. They chuck them in straight away.

“If you are ok, you are ok and in case you’re not, go house.

“If you’re a champion and you’re fighting a defence or somebody in the top 10 then that’s totally fine. I’m on about grassroots level. I’m on about the way it’s built up. When a champion’s fighting the No 3 ranked contender there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Fury does consider that his sport will change. “I think it needs to change for sure and I think it will,” he mentioned. “There’s some big power moves happening in boxing and it’s all stemming from Saudi Arabia. I think there’s going to be a massive change in the next few months. There’s going to be a power change in boxing and it’s going to be for the better.

“So one thing wants to alter and I believe we’ll see it fairly quickly.”

‘The official baddest man on the planet’

It’s natural for Fury to think that when his next contest is a lucrative non-title 10-round boxing contest with Ngannou in Saudi Arabia.

Should he beat Ngannou, he says, “I’ll be the baddest man on the planet. Not solely will I be the world heavyweight champion however I’ll develop into the official baddest man on the planet.

“Battle of the baddest, it’s in the title!”

No retirement plan

Even although Fury acknowledges he is “at the latter end of my career, I’m 35 years old and I’m reaping in the rewards,” the reigning WBC champion isn’t planning on retiring from boxing.

He needs to maintain on preventing and carry on coaching. “For a man in the middle of his life, a man who’s got ambition, a man who wants to do something, I truly don’t believe happiness exists. I think it’s a by-product of something else,” he mentioned.

“Does happiness really exist for me in my life right now or is it a by-product of me going to work every day, achieving goals? Does that give me joy? Or is there such a thing as happiness?

“I do not know, for me I do not assume it exists.”

Fury continued: “I don’t have an exit strategy because beyond boxing I don’t have anything that I’m interested in. You could give me a trillion dollars today and it wouldn’t improve my life at all. It wouldn’t make any difference whatsoever.

“I suppose I’m only a easy man, who simply likes to do what I do which is take the children to highschool, go to the fitness center, take the canine for a stroll, clear up and that is it, repeat.

“Groundhog Day, that’s my life, living in Morecombe Bay doing the same things year in year out. It’s probably why I’m so successful at what I do.”

Live for at present solely

That for Tyson Fury, one of the mercurial characters on the earth {of professional} boxing, is a information to life.

“I never look to the future. That’s the golden rule. The future is unimportant to me because I live for today only,” he mentioned.

“I don’t even live for the next four, five days in advance. I only live one day at a time because that’s the only way I know how. Yesterday’s history, tomorrow’s a mystery, today is for living.

“Tomorrow will probably be what will probably be. Tomorrow will carry what it would carry however as for at present, it is the one factor I’m centered on.

“If you can live your life like that, which 99.99 per cent of people can’t, you’ve then you’ve cracked it.

“That’s why I’ve cracked it.”

Sky prospects can e book Fury vs Ngannou now