More than 20 years of waiting is finally over: Fury and Usyk face off in the epic battle

That moment has finally come, even though it seemed like it would never happen. Two of the world's best heavyweight boxers, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, will fight for the title of the undisputed boxing champion of the world for the first time since 2000 and the legendary Lennox Lewis.

The Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will host this mythical battle in prospect that should start around 1 am Kenyan time on Sunday.

In addition to all four belts (WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF) that the winner will clinch, a special commemorative belt was made especially for this fight and blessed by Pope Francis.

This duel could easily be labelled "the greatest fight of the 21st century", considering that those two are without any question the best fighters who have brought liveliness and new popularity to boxing after the Mike Tyson era.

Both fighters are authentic in their own way, and they bring that authenticity to the ring as well.

Fury's life story is almost worth a motion picture. He was born prematurely, which is why he was not given many chances to survive. Especially since his mother managed to maintain only four out of a total of 14 pregnancies. His father, a former amateur boxer of Irish origin, gave him the name Tyson precisely because of Mike, wanting his son to be a fighter. He managed to survive, thus registering his first victory in the first seconds of his life. The one over death.

He entered the professional ranks in 2008 and slowly climbed the ranks. The match that opened the big door for him was the one against David Chisora, then the best British fighter and one of the contenders for the world title. He defeated him twice in the space of three years, winning the titles of European champion as well as Commonwealth champion.

That's how he got the chance to challenge Wladimir Klitschko, the man who, together with his brother Vitali, dominated the boxing world for a decade, making it uninteresting and, according to some, completely ruining it. He stopped the powerful Ukrainian in November 2015 in Dusseldorf and after 12 rounds of pure dominance won by decision and practically sent him into retirement.

On the other hand, Usyk is a former European, world and Olympic champion. He turned professional in 2013 and was promoted by the Klitschko brothers. At first, he played football, but at the age of 15, he switched to boxing.

From 2018 to 2019, he was the only one who held the titles in all four divisions, and then decided to move to the category above. He defended them twice, in the rematch against the Briton and then against Daniel Dubois. He is considered one of the greatest Ukrainian boxers of all time and one of the greatest cruiserweights of all time, alongside Evander Holyfield. By defeating Joshua in 2021, Usyk became one of only three boxers to hold the cruiserweight and heavyweight world titles, joining Holyfield and David Haye.