Just hours before they enter the ring, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk have finally agreed to new judges for their fight.
After one of the judges assigned to the fight fell ill, a replacement had to be called in at short notice. However, the camps disagreed on who that should be, and ultimately had to toss a coin to make the decision.
As recently as this morning it had not been confirmed that the heavyweight world title fight will take place after the late switch. But it has now been resolved and the event will continue as normal.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk's rematch faced last-minute issues
While in reality it is unlikely that an issue surrounding an alternate judge would have led to a cancellation of the fight, you can never be completely sure with Tyson Fury and his family. They famously threatened to withdraw from his 2015 fight with Wladimir Klitschko over the ring surface and are known for being stalwarts.
Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images
And his brother Tommy Fury simply chose not to fight Darren Till because of the threats his opponent made during a seemingly obvious tongue-in-cheek press conference moment.
So when it emerged that there was a dispute over a replacement judge, viewers and pundits were nervous about the fight. Fernando Barbosa was due to travel to Riyadh to score the fight but pulled out late Thursday when he fell ill and was unable to fly to Saudi Arabia.
Coinflip decides new judge for Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury 2
The pair's teams have been at odds 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 notice as potential replacements, and it appeared Weisfeld would get the job.
However, Fury's promoter Frank Warren proposed a coin toss to resolve the issue, with American Weisfeld seemingly unsatisfactory. And in the early hours of this morning, a coin toss took place and Robles was named as the third judge.
Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images
Before he became ill, there was primarily concern about Barbosa's involvement. 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.
Although the event will be broadcast exclusively on DAZN and not ESPN, there is a link to Fury's US promoters Top Rank Boxing in the ESPN connection. They are the broadcast partner for the promotion, which is run by famed promoter Bob Arum.
The first report of a problem with the judges came from Keith Idec of Boxing News.
Tyson Fury blamed the judges for Oleksandr Usyk's first defeat
The last time they met in May, Oleksandr Usyk came at the end of a razor-thin split-decision scorecard that was likely decided by dropping Fury in the ninth round. It was a point of controversy, which was subsequently deepened by bizarre comments from the Briton.
Tyson Fury on the Usyk decision: “His country is at war, so people side with someone whose country is at war. I won that fight.” 😬 pic.twitter.com/lUj1Qp8ue4
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) May 18, 2024
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He claimed that the jury had drawn closer to Usyk because of the war currently raging in Ukraine, which has ravaged his home country 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 side with the country at war. Make no mistake: In my opinion, I won that fight. I had a split decision loss with a short man. Good luck and God bless you.”
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