Bob Arum Dismisses Idea Of Six Judges For Tyson Fury Vs Oleksandr Usyk

Fury Vs Usyk ‘Not The Fight To Experiment’

While there is plenty of logic in Sulaiman’s plans, Arum does not believe experimenting with something as new and radical as extra judges should be tried in a fight of this magnitude.

“You don’t put in something like that for the first time dealing with a major fight from the standpoint of visibility and importance,” Arum, who co-promotes Fury, told BoxingScene. “Maybe six judges are better than three. I doubt that, but maybe. Nobody knows because it hasn’t been done.

“But at least you experiment with that with fights that are not as prominent. With all due respect to my friend Mauricio – who’s a really good guy, loves the sport of boxing and has done a great job with the WBC – I wouldn’t do it for this fight. I wouldn’t say that you don’t experiment with it for another fight. I don’t believe the judging becomes better because you have six judges rather than three.”

Fury and Usyk will finally enter the ring to face each other in just over three weeks after the fight had been twice delayed. They were initially scheduled to meet on December 23 last year, but Fury’s unexpectedly difficult outing against MMA star, and boxing novice, Francis Ngannou in October pushed the fight to February 17.

Stacked Undercard Provides Worthy Support

Fury, who was sent to the canvas by Ngannou and scraped to a split decision victory, then suffered a cut above his eye in sparring, forcing the fight to be postponed again to May 18.

While much of the focus has understandably been on the main event, the undercard is also stacked with top fights. The co-main will see super-featherweight world champion Joe Cordina defend his IBF title against IBO minor world champion Anthony Cacace.

Before that, highly rated cruiserweight Jai Opetaia will aim to win back the vacant IBF world title against former world champion Mairis Briedis. The Australian was stripped of the title late last year after failing to face mandatory challenger Briedis, instead opting for a payday fight on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s fight with Ngannou in Riyadh.

The undercard will also see the return of former multi-time light-heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev. The Russian has not fought in two years and will be taking on unbeaten Swede Robin Sirwan Safar.

Mark Chamberlain vs Joshua Oluwaseun Wahab, Isaac Lowe vs  Hasibullah Ahmadi, David Nyika vs Michael Seitz, Moses Itauma vs Ilja Mezencev, and Agit Kabayel vs Frank Sanchez complete the undercard.