Oleksandr Usyk vs. Derek Chisora Set For May 23 In London
Former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk will look to continue his heavyweight run by taking on Derek Chisora in May.
Matchroom Boxing announced that Usyk and Chisora will face off in the main event of a show on May 23 taking place at The O2 in May. The fight will air live on Sky Sports Box Office in the United Kingdom and on DAZN in the United States.
Usyk once held the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF cruiserweight titles after winning the first-ever World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament, beating the likes of Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev to unify the division. Afterwards, Usyk successfully defended the titles with a knockout victory over Tony Bellew in November 2018 before officially making the jump to the heavyweight division.
When Usyk moved up to the heavyweight division, his goal was to face Anthony Joshua in a world title fight. In 2019, the WBO ruled that Usyk would be the mandatory challenger to Joshua’s WBO title, but has not had much of an opportunity to secure a fight against the British champion. Joshua would go on to drop and recaptured the unified WBA, WBO and IBF titles with a pair of fights against Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019 while Usyk would go on to make a successful heavyweight debut against Chazz Witherspoon last fall.
Chisora, a former title challenger who is fighting at The O2 for the sixth straight time, has been on the longest win streak in years since he was knocked out by Dillian Whyte in 2018. In 2019, Chisora scored knockout victories over David Price and Artur Szpilka and a near-shutout decision victory over Senad Gashi.
