Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk were engaged in talks for an undisputed heavyweight championship fight that never came to fruition.
So one can imagine the Usyk camp's frustration over hearing Tuesday's announcement that Fury will be fighting Francis Ngannou on October 28th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in a boxing bout.
Upon learning the news, Usyk's manager Egis Klimas blasted Fury, calling the bout with Ngannou, a former UFC heavyweight champion, "the biggest joke" in boxing history to claiming that the WBC heavyweight champ has been reduced to a "joker."
In response to Fury calling himself "The Baddest Man on the Planet," Klimas retorted:
The Fury-Ngannou announcement comes days after it was announced that Usyk will be defending his unified heavyweight championship against Daniel Dubois on August 26 in Poland.
Last August, Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) delivered a split-decision victory over Anthony Joshua in their heavyweight rematch and defended the WBA, IBF and WBO titles.
Fury defended his WBC title via a 10th-round TKO of Derek Chisora in December.