There is now a date for the fight to decide who will be the first unchallenged champion of the four-belt era. The WBA, IBF, and IBO titles of Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, as well as Fury’s WBC belt, are on the line in their bout on February 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as their promoters revealed on Thursday.

Although there was no set date, Fury and Usyk inked the bout agreement in September. That was partly brought on by Fury’s fight with Francis Ngannou, the former heavyweight champion of the UFC, in October.

The conventional thinking was that Fury would defeat Ngannou with ease and that the scheduled December 23 fight between Usyk and Fury would take place. Instead, Fury was cut, knocked out, and the fight was declared a loss on one of the three official scorecards, barely making it through the fight with Ngannou.

Even though Fury defeated Ngannou by split decision, the fight was rescheduled for February 17 due to Fury’s difficulties and cut.

“You can flee, Usyk, but The Gipsy King will catch up with you. Your time is over; this is my age,” Fury declared in a statement. “I’m going to take your belts and your perfect record! We are grateful to His Excellency Turki Alalshikh and His Royal Highness Mohammed Bin Salman for bringing this uncontested title battle to the stunning Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I had a great time fighting Ngannou here, and I’m eager to do it once more. The Gipsy King is going to be the heavyweight champion when he returns to England this time.”

The irony of the issue is that Fury stated, “Usyk has to fight me in December; he doesn’t have a choice,” before the Ngannou fight. He doesn’t really have an option because he signed a contract, and if he doesn’t, he violates it, faces legal action.” Following a lacklustre performance, Fury stated that he wanted time to go home and relax and that they would decide on the date later.

Usyk encountered some speed bumps on his own 2023 voyage. August saw him defeat Daniel Dubois, but there was debate about whether or not Usyk had knocked him down after Dubois delivered a body punch that was judged to be a low blow but that Dubois and many others insisted was legal. That doesn’t mean that, even if it had been allowed, Usyk would have remained down. In the end, Usyk prevailed via TKO in the ninth round of combat.

“It is not a goal,” Usyk declared. “Just the manner. I go by “The Undisputed” as well. That’s why I only got into this battle. I shall bring the fire when that bell rings.”