Full steam ahead for $200m Fury v Usyk clash

TYSON FURY has continued ‘advanced negotiations’ to fight Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world, as yesterday’s deadline for him to reaffirm his retirement from the ring was withdrawn by the WBC. ‘We are at the stage where we can say this enormous fight is definitely happening,’ said Fury’s promoter Frank Warren. ‘Tyson is not vacating the WBC title.’ December 17 in Saudi Arabia remains the preferred date for Fury to meet the Ukrainian war hero who took Anthony Joshua’s WBA, IBF and WBO belts, then retained them in Jeddah. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has confirmed that, while remaining active, Fury is not obliged to make a mandatory defence of their belt for almost a year. That will install the winner of Fury v Usyk as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis retired in 2004. Another 50-50 split has been agreed for Fury-Usyk and they can reasonably expect anything up to $100million each. Saudi Arabia’s rulers are planning to move their big-fight venue from Jeddah to the capital Riyadh as a parallel attraction to the World Cup final in neighbouring Qatar the following night, December 18. With pay-per-view TV revenue in the US expected to be far higher with the major ESPN and Showtime networks planning to lead the bidders, the Kingdom is expected to at least double its $80-100 million investment in last Saturday’s event.

CHRIS EUBANK JNR has confirmed that his father, Chris Snr, will be back in his corner for his upcoming grudge match against Conor Benn. Recently, Eubank Jnr has worked under Roy Jones Jnr in the US but he plans to train for the October 8 fight in Brighton, once again under the guidance of his father.