The bout between Tyson Fury and Olexander Usyk was supposed to take place on February 17 in Saudi Arabia but was postponed due to the Briton’s dissection. Later, Al Al-Sheikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority in Saudi Arabia, said that the entire tournament was postponed because of the cancellation of the fight.
Fury has no defeats in the professional ring, having won 34 victories (24 by knockout) and one fight ending in a draw. The undefeated Usyk has 21 wins (14 by knockout).
What is the uniqueness of this fight? The winner will become the first absolute heavyweight champion of the world in the XXI century. Fury holds the WBC belt, while Usyk holds the WBA, WBO and IBF titles.
Tyson Fury is the current world champion in the super heavyweight over 91 kilograms division according to the WBC, the other three titles necessary for the appearance in this weight category of the absolute world champion WBA, WBO, and IBF, are concentrated in the hands of Ukrainian Olexander Usyk. Until now, there have been no absolutes in this division, as these four titles have long been distributed among at least three boxers, and now that they belong to two fighters, it’s the perfect time to reveal the strongest in the division.
The fight was originally scheduled for December 23. Fury defeated former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion Francis Ngannou in a boxing match in late October. The fight lasted all ten rounds. Fury won by split decision of the judges. After that fight, the promoter of the British boxer Frank Warren announced the postponement of his fight with Usyk, noting that Fury would not be ready to step into the ring in December.
On November 16, it was officially announced that the fight between Fury and Usyk would take place on February 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The contract for the fight Usyk – Fury was officially agreed. November 16, it became known that the fight Usyk-Fury will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 17, 2024. This was announced at a press conference on the organization of the championship fight between boxers.
However, on February 3, the promotional company Queensberry Promotions announced that the fight Usyk – Fury was postponed to May 18, 2024. The reason was an injury Fury received during one of the sparring sessions while he was preparing for the fight.
So on May 18 in Riyadh will be held a big boxing tournament Ring of Fire, the main event of which will be a fight between the star undefeated heavyweights Tyson Fury and Olexander Usyk. The boxers will determine the first absolute world champion in the XXI century in the heavyweight division.
The Fight Logo
The official visual identity of the upcoming fight looks very powerful, even though its composition is simple and clear: the photograph of Tyson Fury and Olexander Usyk, standing back-to-back on a dark blue background with slight gradients, and lettering, which varies depending on the logo version.
In the “shortened” badge we can see the enlarged “Ring of Fire” logotype overlapping the photo of the fighters in the center. The logotype is drawn in a smooth and tender peach shade, and supported by a more delicate Riyadh Season insignia placed above it and executed in the same color. The Ring of Fire emblem has two stylized flames inscribed into it: the first one makes up the negative space of the “R”, and is simply cut out, white the second one, in the second “R” is enlarged, colored in intense pinkish red, and featuring a small “Of” written on it.
The extended version of the Usyk vs. Fury fight features all the same elements, but here the “Ring of Fire” emblem is placed on the left from the Fury’s photo, and the additional “Fury vs. Usyk” inscription in the same style is set on the right from Olexander. This part of the lettering is executed in pinkish red, with the flame in light peach.
The logo of the upcoming event is all about fighting spirit and strength. The brutality of the boxers is balanced by an interesting choice of colors for the lettering, and the “Heat” of the fight is supported by the flame symbols.
The Arena
The long-awaited fight for the world heavyweight title will take place on May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, at the Kingdom Arena. There have already been three big boxing tournaments with fights like Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou, Dmitry Bivol vs. Lyndon Arthur, Anthony Joshua vs. Otto Wallin, Deontay Wilder vs. Joseph Parker, and Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou. Even the first-ever UFC tournament in Saudi Arabia was entrusted to this very arena.
The arena was originally going to be named Boulevard Holl, but Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who has been called the Arab Warren Buffett, paid just over $6.5 million to have the name be Kingdom Arena, as Al-Waleed is the owner of a company called Kingdom Holding.
The arena began construction only in the middle of last year. According to the plan, it was to become a major entertainment center, which has enough functionality to host both sporting events and concerts. Generally, the erection of the arena was part of the development of Riyadh Season, the largest entertainment program in Saudi Arabia’s history.
“Kingdom Arena” is a fully covered structure measuring 220×150 meters and 47 meters high. Inside, there is a full-size soccer field, bleachers, a large waiting room equipped with a panoramic video screen, and 20 luxury boxes. As a soccer stadium, Kingdom Arena has a capacity of 26,000 spectators. For boxing tournaments, the capacity could be increased to 40,000.
The most amazing fact about the venue is that this arena was built in just 60 days as part of the Boulevard City project. The Kingdom Arena already holds two world records – firstly, it is the largest indoor soccer stadium and secondly, it holds the largest number of spectators among all indoor arenas.
As for the visual identity of the Kingdom Arena, it is quite minimalistic and fresh, due to the use of simple geometric shapes as the basis, and a cooling color palette. The emblem of the stadium is a circular shape built of rectangles and squares, flying on a transparent background with a lot of space in between them. The figures are drawn in different shades of blue, creating a feeling of motion and lightness. Under the emblem, there is a two-leveled inscription with the name of the arena, written in two styles in dark blue. The “Kingdom” part is set in thin bars of a designer sans-serif typeface, white the “Arena” emboldened, and has the angles of the bars slightly softened, balancing the straight corners of the elements in the emblem.
The Sponsors
Of course, sponsorship and media coverage is of paramount importance for such a great event as an absolute world heavyweight title fight. On the one hand, the de jure organizer of the show is Frank Warren, Fury’s promoter. On the other hand, the main organization of this event is super investor Turki Al Al-Sheikh.
In terms of media coverage, Boxing Night in Riyadh will be broadcast worldwide by four broadcasters: British – Sky and TNT, and American Dazn, and ESPN. All have made the broadcasts pay-per-view.
In addition to the main partners of the event, each fighter has his own sponsors: for Usyk it is mobile operator Technocom, sports equipment brand Rival Boxing Gear, and one of the most popular brands of equipment for martial arts, Venum; for Fury – the manufacturer of protein drinks WOW Hydrate, a British brand of sports drinks Lucozade Sport, and the company MTK Global.
Apart from the standard sponsorship, this significant event in the world of sports received additional support. Thus, the American jewelry firm Jacob’s & Co. released a special wristwatch dedicated to the fight between the Briton and the Ukrainian. In total, there are three copies of the unique watches: one each will be given to the participants of the fight – Usyk and Fury, and one more will be sold at a charity auction.
The Fighters
Olexander Usyk, 36, is undefeated in the professional ring with 21 wins (14 by knockout) in 21 fights. In August, he defeated the British Daniel Dubois and for the second time defended the title of world champion in the heavyweight division under the versions WBO, WBA Super, IBO, and IBF. For the Ukrainian boxer, it was the first fight after two title fights with the British Anthony Joshua (in both meetings Usyk defeated the British).
Usyk’s nickname in the ring is The Cat. He got it during his first fights abroad. But he doesn’t like to be called that. This was stated several times to journalists during his comments. Although it is this nickname that Usyk uses in social networks. In a couple of interviews, the fighter mentioned, that he would prefer to be called The Wolf, and also said that his close circle usually calls him Mister Frost, for his ability to abstract from external stimuli.
As for the logo of Oleksandr Usyk, it is quite multi-component and bright. All the elements of the badge are set on a plain black vertically-oriented rectangle with white lettering written around the central emblem, which depicts two red boxing gloves overlapping the Ukrainian flag drawn in brush style. Apart from the name of the boxer, there is also his birth date, 1987, set on the sides of the emblem and enclosed between the two white horizontal lines. The Usyk’s logo is not only a depiction of power and determination but also a very patriotic image, which shows the strong connection of the fighter to his roots and background.
Tyson Fury is 35 years old, in 2015 he defeated Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko and won the International Boxing Federation (IBF), World Boxing Association (WBA), and World Boxing Organization (WBO) titles. He won the World Boxing Council (WBC) belt in his second fight against American Deontay Wilder in February 2020. Last December, Fury defended his WBC world title for the third time by defeating Chisora. The Brit won 34 victories in the professional ring (24 by knockout), finished one fight in a draw, and never lost.
Tyson Fury was born into a nomadic family. He is not shy about his background and goes by the nickname “The Gypsy King”. Despite world fame and recognition, Fury was a victim of racial discrimination – like Mohammed Ali after winning the 1960 Olympics. Because of Fury’s nickname, there is an erroneous assumption that he is related to the Gypsies. Although Fury comes from a nomadic family, he is not from a gypsy family. He was born in England to a family of Irish vagabonds, and his ancestors were champion fist fighters. Otea Burton, maternal great-grandfather of Fury carried the nickname “King of the Gypsies.”
The Gypsy style, with the gold elements prevailing, is also reflected in the official logo of the fighter. The Fury’s badge is a stylized “Gypsy King” lettering written in two levels on a solid gold circle. Each of the inscription levels is underlined with the lines coming out from the circle to the right. The composition is decorated by an elegant crown, cut out from the golden background at its top part. Overall the logo represents the strongest qualities of its bearer and and depicts his strong value of the heritage.
The Uniform
Oleksandr Usyk’s outfit for the upcoming fight with Tyson Fury is made in white color. The belt consists of blue and yellow lines. On the place of the buckle, there is a chrisma – a monogram made of the first letters of the Greek word “Christ” – “Anointed One”. On the edges of the monogram are placed Greek letters “a” and “ω” – alpha and omega. Because of this drawing, a scandal erupted in the media after the fight. Reports have surfaced that Usyk is boxing in a uniform allegedly bearing the symbols of Russian neo-Nazis. On the back of the belt on the shorts is written the name of Alexander’s fourth child, Maria.
As for Tyson Fury’s outfit, it is always executed in a “gypsy theme”, supporting the boxer’s loud nickname, “The Gypsy King”. Fury’s main colors are gold and emerald green, and they are used both in the fighter’s shorts and on his boxing gloves. Unlike Usyk, who actively uses a patriotic yellow and blue color palette in each of his ring appearances, Fury sticks to the principle of individuality and follows his personal image – gold and crowns on the logo.
The gloves of the fighters are also stylized in the same color palettes — Usyk’s white gloves bear the same Chrisma sign as his shorts, while Fury prefers solid green gloves with the white Everlast logo.
The Resume
The fight between Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk and British Tyson Fury is a truly outstanding event for the world of sports, as it is the first fight in history when all four heavyweight belts: WBO, WBA, IBF and WBC will be at stake. The promotion of the top bout has been going on for over a year and millions of sports fans are looking forward to it.
But events of this kind and importance are not only about the fight itself, they are a lot of small (and not so small) elements that affect both information promotion and profitability. Visuals and logos are one of the most important elements when it comes to merchandising and sales. They have the strongest impact on viewer engagement with the event. The visual identity of fighters and sponsors will long after the fight decorate all sorts of products and printables reminding about this clash of the century.
In today’s world, visual perception plays one of the leading roles in brand or event attitudes, and of course, a fight as big as Fury vs Usyk has nothing wrong with that. By the way, a special WBC belt has already been presented, for which Usyk and Fury will fight. It features the colors of the Ukrainian and British flags. Pope Francis has already blessed the World Boxing Council belt that will be on the line in the title fight.
