It's hard to keep up with the Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk drama. On Friday, the boxing world was rocked to its very foundations when the February 17 date was nixed due to Fury sustaining a terrible cut to his right eye in sparring. Well, fear not because the pair are now scheduled to duke it out in Riyadh on May 18.
MORE: Why is Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk off?
The first undisputed heavyweight championship fight in a quarter of a century falling apart at 16 days' notice almost broke the internet. Fury detractors went wild, some accusing the WBC champion of cutting himself to get out of the fight or blaming him for sparring two weeks out from the fight (which is standard).
Even when footage of the incident emerged, it did little to quell the conspiracy theorists.
Well, the good news -- and we needed it -- is that the fight is back on.
"We have a new fight date," said Fury on his official Instagram account. "Massive shoutout to Turki Alalshakh for making this new date possible so quick. In life, sometimes sh_tty thing happen, but you never let it get to you. You always keep moving forward. Look at that b_stard right there [shows cut]. Nice little elbow right in the eye nearly cost me the biggest fight of my life, but what can you do? Shit happens.
"Usyk is crying his eyes out: 'Tyson should retire', or he wants to retire. No retirement here, mother f__ker! You're getting knocked out! Knocked spark out. May 18th, the new date, live and exclusive from Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Season. I just thought I'd let you know what time it was."
When the fight was called off on Friday, there were rumours that Usyk might take another assignment, conceivably against IBF mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic.
However, Fury disclosing the new date means fans will be getting what they want. As always, they're just being forced to wait for it.
