The judge of the Usyk – Fury rematch was changed the day before the fight

American referee Fernando Barbosa was removed from his job at the rematch between Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) and Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) a day before the fight. The boxing referee from Miami fell ill and did not even arrive in Riyadh after it became known that he had been appointed to the fight.

Yahoo Sports journalist Keith Idec wrote about this on his page on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter. According to him, Barbosa's replacement will be his compatriot from New Jersey, Steve Weisfeld. Together with him, Puerto Rican Gerardo Martinez and American Patrick Morley will be keeping score of the Usyk – Fury 2 fight. Roberto Martinez Jr. from Puerto Rico has been appointed as the ring referee.

Weisfeld has already worked one of Usyk's fights. He scored the Ukrainian a 116-112 victory in his first fight against Anthony Joshua (28-4, 25 KOs) in September 2021. Then our compatriot won by unanimous decision.

The day before, the final press conference of the Usyk vs. Fury rematch took place in Riyadh, during which the boxers staged an epic duel of looks. Eyewitnesses filmed everything that happened during this event.

Earlier, the legendary Kostya Tszyu gave his prediction for the second Usyk – Fury 2 fight. In his turn, the Briton made a categorical statement about the upcoming fight, which was subject to a historic rule.

On December 17, the official ceremony of the rivals' arrival in Riyadh took place, during which the Ukrainian impressed with his appearance. He also climbed into the cockpit and watched Tyson.

Also, our compatriot announced his intention to leave the heavyweight division. He answered the question whether he was going to end his career after the rematch with Fury.

On December 1, an epic promo for the rematch between Usyk and Fury was released. It was called a disgrace to American boxing companies.

Before that, it became known that Tyson wanted to organize a trilogy with Oleksandr to make boxing history. The Briton also accused the Ukrainian of disrupting the timing of the rematch.

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