Pope Francis blesses special WBC belt on the line in Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undisputed clash

The WBC commemorative belt for the undisputed Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight has been blessed by Pope Francis.

WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman unveiled the special bracelet, featuring the colors of the British and Ukrainian flags, at the press conference to launch the Matchroom vs Queensbury 5v5 event on Monday.

The iconic green and gold world title is already on the line as one of four major belts up for grabs on May 18, but the WBC also created this new belt to pay homage to the fight.

Special WBC belts are often created to commemorate successful events.

There have been around 30 since the “24k Gold” bracelet in 2013.

Examples include the “Money Belt” for Floyd Mayweather against Conor McGregor in 2017 and the “Riyadh Championship” for Fury against Francis Ngannou last year.

But the WBC’s new belt now stands out from its other iterations as the only one to be blessed by the Pope, as can be seen in recent footage released by Sky Sports earlier today.

The WBC was established in 1963 and is one of boxing’s oldest sanctioning bodies.

It is one of the four main organizations that sanction professional boxing fights, alongside the WBO, WBA and IBF.

3

3

For a fighter to become an undisputed champion, he must win all four major body belts.

Usyk and Fury attempt to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four-belt era next month when they face off at the Kingdom Arena in Saudi Arabia.

The last undisputed champion in this weight class was Lennox Lewis, who won the distinction when the WBO title was not recognized as it is today.

Lewis became undisputed by defeating Evander Holyfield in their 1999 rematch.

However, he was unable to defend his status as the WBA stripped him of his title in April 2000 for agreeing to fight Michael Grant instead of his mandatory challenger John Ruiz.

You can get all the latest boxing reaction by subscribing to talkSPORT Boxing YouTube channel.

Boxing WhatsApp Channel