Tyson Fury ‘officially activates rematch clause with Oleksandr Usyk’ following defeat in Saudi Arabia… after Ukrainian ‘requests exemption’ to prevent him from facing mandatory challenger

Tyson Fury has officially activated a rematch clause to fight Oleksandr Usyk, according to Top Rank CEO Bob Arum.

The Ukrainian beat Fury last weekend in a reversal decision victory to become the first fighter since Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield in 1999 to unify the belts.

However, Usyk was in danger of being stripped of his IBF championship as he was expected to defend his title against Croatian Filip Hrgovic.

With that in mind, IBF President Daryl Peoples confirmed that Usyk had officially requested an exception to retain his IBF world heavyweight title for a Fury rematch, rather than being stripped for not having faced his IBF mandatory challenger.

Now it appears his wish has been granted after Arum confirmed Fury had activated a rematch clause with his Ukrainian counterpart.

Usyk became the first man in 25 years to unify the division after beating Fury last month

Uysk requested an exemption to retain his IBF heavyweight title – despite Croatian boxer Filip Hrgovic (above) being the mandatory challenger – in order to face Fury instead.

According to talkSPORT, Arum relayed the news before saying: “This fight will take place either at the end of this year or the beginning of next year in Riyadh.”

Hrgovic has been the top contender at heavyweight since his August 2022 victory over Zhilei Zhang.

The Croatian will be in action next weekend when he takes on Englishman Daniel Dubois in Matchroom vs. Queensberry 5-v-5 at the same venue in Saudi Arabia where Usyk tasted victory last week.

Usyk went into his titanic clash with Fury knowing his undisputed reign could only last two weeks – given the mandatory challenger.

The threat of a short undisputed reign and a blowout of the belts was always a possibility when the initial date for Usyk’s clash with Fury was set.

However, things were made even more complicated after the duo’s fight was moved forward following Fury’s eye injury which saw the fight moved to a later date.

Uysk wants to remain undisputed champion ahead of expected rematch with Tyson Fury

Usyk won the WBA, IBF and WBO titles in a points victory over Anthony Joshua in September 2021 and kept the stakes in a rematch against the Briton a year later – the same night Hrgovic beat Zhang to become the obligatory challenger.

Now, the 37-year-old wants to extend his run with all four belts, so he can defend them again against the Gypsy King in their expected rematch later this year.

Meanwhile, Fury was banned from boxing for a week after his defeat Last weekend.

It was revealed that the UAE Boxing Commission had imposed a rather meaningless one-week medical suspension on him, meaning he would not be allowed to fight until this weekend.