The gala evening in Riyadh will offer other interesting duels in addition to the main Fury vs. Usyk duel on May 18. Opetaia and Briedis will meet in a rematch for the IBF belt in the cruiserweight division. For Cordino and Cacaca’s IBF and IBO super featherweight titles. Kovalev also returns!
As early as next month, the much-anticipated heavyweight unification battle will feature the British undefeated WBC champion “The Gypsy King” Tyson Fury (34-0-1, 24 KOs) on one side and the Ukrainian champion of the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO Oleksandr Usyk (21-0-0, 14 KOs). However, the rest of the card will also offer very interesting duels, two of which are title matches.
Two former champions Jai Opetaia (24-0-0, 19 KOs) and Mairis Briedis (28-2-0, 20 KOs) will compete for the IBF cruiserweight world title in a rematch. The first mutual duel took place two years ago in Australia, and Opetaia was able to beat the then champion Briedis 3 times 116:112 and took the title for himself. The nearly 40-year-old Briedis will want to take back the title in a rematch, but Opetaia, who is eleven years younger, will be a big favorite.
The unifying battle will be offered by the super featherweight division, in which the undefeated British boxer and IBF champion Joe Cordina (17-0-0, 9 KOs) and the Irish minor IBO champion “The Apache’ or ‘Anto'” Anthony Cacace (21-1 -0.7 KO). Cordina is a huge favourite, having also scalped star Shavkatjon Rakhimov.
Between the sixteen ropes, after a two-year break, the former light heavyweight world champion and now 41-year-old Russian warrior “Krusher” Sergey Kovalev (35-4-1, 29 KOs), who is waiting for the Swedish undefeated fighter Robin Sirwan Safar (16-0-0 , 12 KOs).
After a surprisingly great performance last year, the German champion Agit Kabayel is also returning, who was able to perfectly dismantle and demolish the Russian Arslanbek Makhmudov in December. His opponent will be the still undefeated Cuban star “The Cuban Flash” Frank Sanchez (24-0-0, 17 KOs). The live broadcast will be provided by the streaming platform DAZN.
