Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury have reached a ‘deadlock’ in dramatic late talks over a change to their fight on Saturday, it has been reported.
The pair are due to face off in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday evening in what will be their second bout this year.
Heavyweight champion Usyk won their first fight via split decision to retain his belts and win the WBC crown from Fury.
They will now do battle again in the weekend before Christmas in Riyadh, with plenty of tension between the fighters in the build-up.
But there has been late drama just under 36 hours before the fight is due to get underway.
According to Sky Sports, judge Fernando Barbosa has been unable to travel to Riyadh due to illness, with two officials being flown in to replace him.
However, it is said that both camps are split over which of the two judges should officiate the fight and have reached a ‘deadlock’.
Frank Warren has suggested solving the issue with a coin toss, though it is unclear whether Usyk’s camp will agree.
Warren told Sky Sports: “There are two standby judges. We want one of them, the other camp wants the other. I’ve suggested we spin a coin.”
BoxingScene reported that Steve Weisfeld, of New Jersey, had been expected to step in for Barbosa. He has previously officiated Fury’s heavyweight title wins over Deontay Wilder and Usyk’s first encounter with Anthony Joshua.
Oleksandr Usyk, Turki Alalshikh and Tyson Fury pictured (Image: Getty)
They add that Barbosa worked for Disney and ESPN, whom Fury’s promoter Top Rank currently work alongside.
Meanwhile, there will also be a fourth ‘judge’ involved in the fight – an AI-powered official.
Turki Alalshikh confirmed that the judge will be ‘free from bias and human error’ although won’t contribute to the official scorecards.
He wrote on Twitter: “For the first time ever, an AI-powered judge will monitor the fight.
“Free from bias and human error brought to you by The Ring. This groundbreaking experiment, which won’t impact the official results, debuts during the biggest fight of the century.”
The judge will analyse every round and every move from each fighter to display real-time metrics and calculate a score for each round and the winner.