The cult kickboxer and holder of a cool record in profiboxing heavyweight Tyrone Spong (14-0, 13 KOs) from the Netherlands will perform on August 20 in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) as the opening act for a rematch for the WBA Super, IBF, WBO titles in the same weight between Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) and Briton Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs).
WATCH FIGHT Usyk vs Joshua 2 ON DAZN
Spong’s opponent has not been named.
Interestingly, it was he who was supposed to become Usyk’s first heavyweight opponent – the fight was planned to take place in October 2019 in Chicago (USA). Shortly before the fight, a fighter from the Netherlands failed a doping test and was replaced by local gatekeeper Chazz Witherspoon.
Spong is not very lucky in the heavyweight – in April it was rumored that he would get a financially profitable fight against former unified Mexican-American division champion Andy Ruiz (34-2, 22 KOs), but he was ordered to fight Cuban veteran Luis Ortiz in September.
Speaking of Ruiz. Ahead of his comeback (and he hasn’t been in the ring since last May), he recalled how he first upset (at the time) unified champion Joshua, and then lost all the belts in a rematch: “It all happened so quickly … At first the dream came true … But instead of returning to the gym and working harder than before, I completely forgot about the point about revenge. I’m telling you, it all happened in an instant…
According to the fighter, at times he even gets a little depressed because of that incident: “It happens … Sometimes I get depressed, sometimes I get angry at myself. I still can’t forgive myself for this. But, as I said before, I’m going to climb to the top again. And I use this fakap for motivation to become a champion again. There is one plus to this whole story. When I take the belt again, I will definitely know what to do and what not to do … “
The other day, an expert hinted that in the battle Ruiz – Ortiz should bet on the underdog.
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