Fair or foul? Team Usyk calls for Tyson Fury to be stripped of heavyweight title, become a ‘champion in recess’

Oleksandr Usyk and his team are not happy about Tyson Fury’s recent withdrawal from their previously scheduled heavyweight title fight later this month. In turn, Usyk’s promoter is calling for “Gypsy King” to be stripped of his heavyweight crown and become a “champion in recess.”

On Friday, news surfaced that Fury suffered a nasty cut in sparring and would be forced to withdraw from his long-awaited clash with Usyk on Feb. 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A few hours later, video footage leaked that showed the exact moment Fury was cut in training. It was pretty gnarly and a legitimate reason for the towering English champion to pull out of the fight.

As you could imagine, Usyk and his team were not happy with Fury’s accident in training. Both sides have been trying to book this fight for nearly two years and it was expected to be the biggest boxing match of 2024. Unfortunately, Usyk will now have to sit back and wait for Fury to heal his cut and get back into camp.

On Saturday, Usyk’s promoter, Alex Krassyuk, spoke out and urged for Fury to be stripped of his WBC heavyweight title in light of his injury (shown below). Krassyuk wants Fury to become a “champion in recess” so Usyk can fight someone else for the undisputed heavyweight crown of boxing.

“Oleksandr Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk has called for Tyson Fury to be stripped or vacate his WBC heavyweight world title and become a ‘champion in recess’ so Usyk can fight someone else to achieve his undisputed goal.”

Remember, Francis Ngannou and Anthony Joshua are set to fight this coming March in a massive heavyweight boxing match. If Fury is not healed and prepared to reschedule his fight with Usyk in short time then the winner of Ngannou vs. Joshua could very well slide in to fight the Ukrainian champion