Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk rematch saved at the last minute as coin flip resolves major pre-fight dispute
Just hours before they are due to step into the ring, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have finally agreed to the new judges for their fight.
After one of the judges assigned to the fight fell ill, a replacement was needed to be drafted in on short notice. However, the camps were in disagreement over who that should be, eventually having to flip a coin in order to make the decision.
As recently as this morning, the heavyweight world title fight was not yet confirmed to be happening after the late switch-up. But it has now been resolved and the event will go ahead as normal.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk rematch faced last minute problem
While in actuality it is unlikely that an issue surrounding a substitute judge would have caused a fight cancellation, one can never be too sure with Tyson Fury and his family. They famously threatened to pull out of his 2015 fight with Wladimir Klitschko over the ring surface, and are known to be sticklers.
And his brother Tommy Fury just opted against fighting Darren Till over threats his opponent had made during a seemingly obvious tongue-in-cheek press conference moment.
So when it emerged that there was a dispute over a replacement judge, it had viewers and experts nervous for the bout. Fernando Barbosa was due to travel to Riyadh to score the bout, but withdrew late on Thursday when he became sick and was unable to fly to Saudi Arabia.
Coin flip decides new judge for Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury 2
The pair’s teams were at loggerheads over who should replace Barbosa, with two options emerging yesterday. Panama’s Ignacio Robles and New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld were both flown in on short as potential replacements, and it appeared that Weisfeld would get the assignment.
However, Fury’s promoter Frank Warren suggested a coin toss to settle the issue, with American Weisfeld seemingly not satisfactory. And in the early hours of this morning, there was a coin flip and Robles was named as the third judge.
Before he fell ill, there had been concern about Barbosa’s involvement in the first place. He has other jobs in the boxing world outside of judging, reporting from ringside for ESPN KnockOut and acting as a senior vice president for Disney Latin America.
While the event is being broadcast exclusively on DAZN and not ESPN, there is a link to Fury’s American promoters Top Rank Boxing in the ESPN connection. They are the broadcast partner for the promotion, which is run by the famed promoter Bob Arum.
The first report of an issue with the judges came from Boxing News’ Keith Idec.
Tyson Fury blamed judges for first Oleksandr Usyk defeat
The last time they met back in May, Oleksandr Usyk came out on the end of a razor-close split decision scorecard that was likely decided by his dropping Fury in the ninth round. It was a point of some controversy, which was deepened by bizarre comments from the Brit after the fact.
Tyson Fury on the Usyk decision: “His country is at war so people are siding with someone whose country is at war. I won that fight.” 😬 pic.twitter.com/lUj1Qp8ue4
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) May 18, 2024
He claimed that the judges gave closer rounds to Usyk because of the war happeing in Ukraine at the moment, which has ravaged his homeland and made him a sympathetic figure to fans. “I believe I won that fight,” Fury said at the time.
“I think he won a few of those rounds but I won the majority of them. His country is at war, so people are siding with the country at war. Make no mistake, I won that fight in my opinion. I’ve had a split decision loss with a little man. Good luck and God bless you.”
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