Combat Fury – Usyk: at what time and on which channel to follow the rematch between the two heavyweights ?

Seven months after their first fight, world champion Oleksandr Usyk and his great rival Tyson Fury meet for a rematch this Saturday, December 21 in Riyadh, where the Ukrainian hopes to extend his supremacy and the Briton seeks revenge for the only defeat of his career.

On May 19, at the end of a fight that had kept all its promises, Usyk became the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999. The Ukrainian, declared the winner by split decision, unified the four belts in the category.

Since then, Usyk has relinquished his IBF title, which has since been reclaimed by Briton Daniel Dubois. Saturday's “rematch”, the most anticipated boxing event of the end of the year, will therefore be about the three other belts, those of the WBA, the WBO and the WBC.

As this second round approaches, the mustachioed man from Simferopol and the “Gypsy King” have increased the pressure, engaging in an extraordinary face-off on Thursday, eye to eye for more than 11 minutes.

“Damage” and “pain”

Not very talkative during the press conference, the unpredictable Briton acknowledged that after having “talked and joked” throughout his career, he was ready for the fight. “This time, I'm serious. I'm going to do some damage here Saturday night. I'm going to inflict a lot of pain.”, he said.

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Usyk, 37, for his part refused to enter into the game of verbal provocations. “It's all going to be decided on Saturday night,”, he said.

In the first leg, Fury, 36, suffered the first defeat of his career. Before facing Usyk, he was indeed undefeated in 35 fights, despite an up-and-down career marked by depressive episodes and addiction problems.

His preparation had been chaotic after a nasty eye injury in training forced him to postpone the fight for three months. During the final preparations, his father, John, head-butted a member of Usyk's entourage, and it was later revealed that Fury's wife had suffered a miscarriage the day before the fight.

On Thursday, he refused to appear in front of the cameras at a public workout held under the gaze of a mock Sphinx at Riyadh's Boulevard World theme park. Wearing a hoodie and leather jacket, Fury strolled into the ring, laced up his gloves, took them off again, then issued monosyllabic threats.

Usyk, by contrast, was smiling and exuberant, dancing and shadow boxing to the music of Ukrainian pop star Artem Pivovarov.

180 million euros

“The first fight is in the past,” the 2012 Olympic champion said, adding that he felt “good, very comfortable in boxing and training.”

Fury, a former WBC champion, must beat Usyk on Saturday if he is to erase the only blemish on his record. But the Ukrainian southpaw may be six inches and several pounds shorter than him, but his footwork, speed and impressive physical condition make him a formidable heavyweight.

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Despite these criticisms, the country is becoming the undisputed capital of world boxing, with monumental purses and Hollywood-style productions. For Saturday's fight, the British media reported a purse of 150 million pounds (180 million euros), of which Usyk should take the lion's share, unlike what happened in May, when Fury received 70% of the sum according to the media.