British boxing fans have been dealt a blow ahead of Saturday’s fight.
British boxing fans have been dealt a blow ahead of the undisputed showdown between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury defends his WBC strap against Usyk, who puts his WBA (super), IBF and WBO titles on the line when they meet on Saturday.
The Riyadh clash will crown an undisputed heavyweight champion for the first time since 1999 when Lennox Lewis defeated Evander Holyfield.
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Twitter: Queensberry Promotions
Fury vs. Usyk is just days away, with Sky Sports Box Office, TNT Sports Box Office, DAZN PPV and ESPN+ PPV carrying the fight across the U.K, US and the world.
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In the U.K, the undisputed bout will be on pay-per-view.
But British fans wanting to listen to Fury vs. Usyk on radio won’t be able to after the BBC failed to strike a deal with Saudi Arabia authorities.
According to The Times, the BBC sent a team out to Saudi Arabia expecting to conclude a deal for rights to broadcast the fight.
On Wednesday, however, the deal fell through.
Eddie Hearn speaks with Steve Bunce for BBC radio. Image: Getty
Per the report: “It is not unusual for radio broadcast rights to be settled in fight week. The Saudi promoters were still in negotiations this week. However, its public relations team said a decision has been made not to sell the radio rights in the UK because it is believed attracting a radio audience would diminish the number of pay-per-view sales.”
The alternative radio broadcaster to the BBC would be talkSPORT who, however, has a bad relationship with Team Fury, having slammed him on their platform.
TalkSPORT is also not the favourite broadcaster of the Saudi promoters as they have raised questions over Saudi Arabia as a boxing venue in the past.
The BBC claim they would have sent a small team to Riyadh anyway to cover the event across their other platforms.
