Who is the referee and who are the judges for Fury vs Usyk? (2024)

Oleksandr Usyk became boxing’s first four-belt undisputed heavyweight champion with a thrilling split decision victory over Tyson Fury in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Usyk seized control of the pulsating fight in the ninth round, when he came close to finishing Fury. The Briton survived a standing 10 count and made it to the end of the fight, only to lose the decision. Usyk won 115-112 and 114-113 on two scorecards while the third judge saw it as 114-113 against him.

The decision saw 35-year-old Fury lose for the first time in a 16-year professional career. But he will get an immediate opportunity for revenge with a rematch planned for later this year.

“I believe I won that fight,” Fury said in the ring afterwards. “I believe he won a few of the rounds, but I won the majority. It was one of the daftest decisions in boxing. I'll be back. The good little man got the decision.”

The third man in the ring for today’s heavyweight title fight is the American veteran Mark Nelson. He has an impressive 990 bouts under his belt, with over 100 of those being world title fights.

The three judges at ringside are Spain’s Manuel Oliver Palermo, Canada’s Craig Metcalfe and American Mike Fitzgerald.

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• Moses Itauma v Ilja Mezencev - heavyweight (10x3min rounds)
• Mark Chamberlain v Joshua Oluwaseun Wahab - lightweight (10x3min rounds)
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If you live in the United Kingdom you have a few different options. DAZN are showing the fight for £24.99, which also includes one month’s DAZN subscription. But you will be charged for an additional month if you forget to cancel the subscription after the fight. Existing DAZN subscribers can get the PPV for £23.99.

The fight will also be shown on TNT Sports Box Office and Sky Sports Box Office. Both of those options cost £24.99, too.

In the United States, the pay-per-view is available for the higher price of $69.99 on both DAZN and ESPN+.

How long is a piece of string? There is surely no greater fool’s errand in the world of sport than attempting to pinpoint exactly when the main event of a big boxing card will start.

But we have some clues. Anthony Joshua began his ringwalk at 00.24am GMT when he fought Francis Ngannou in Riyadh in March — despite a planned start time of 11pm.

Organisers have said all week long that they want Tyson Fury’s fight with Oleksandr Usyk to begin earlier than that. But the billed time of 11pm would still be a surprise. So we’re betting on a midnight GMT start, which would be 7pm on the east coast and 4pm on the west.

Hello and welcome to The Athletic’s live coverage of today’s gargantuan heavyweight fight between Britain’s Tyson Fury and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk, two of the most storied and successful boxers in the world.

There is plenty on the line today. It is the first undisputed heavyweight title fight since 1999 (more on that later) and the first time all four major world titles have been on the line in the four-belt era.

That means today’s winner will walk away with all the marbles: the WBO, WBA, IBF and WBC heavyweight belts. The Ring magazine heavyweight title — traditionally awarded to the best fighter in the division — is also up for grabs.

Ring walks are expected around 11pm GMT (6pm ET) — but stick with us in the meantime for plenty of build-up to one of the biggest sporting events of the year.