Fury vs Usyk 2 LIVE: Latest news and weigh-in updates after absurdly long face-off

The heavyweight rematch between Fury and Usyk will feature scoring from a fourth ‘judge’ powered by artificial intelligence.

Turki Al-Sheikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, announced the implementation of the AI judge in a post on X, adding that it is an “experiment” which “won’t impact the official results”.

“For the first time ever, an AI-powered judge will monitor the fight”, said the post. “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 announcement is sure to split opinion in a sport that has long been affected by controversial judges’ decisions, with some fans on social media welcoming the decision.

All the talking finally stopped, and nobody will ever forget round nine of the first fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury in Riyadh back in May.

Fury was hit from corner to corner, reeling, out on his feet, wide-eyed but defiant, and Usyk chased him like an animal pursuing wounded prey. It was a minute of total boxing madness; Fury survived the round and was still standing at the end of the 12 rounds. Usyk got the verdict, Usyk became the first undisputed world heavyweight champion for 25 years and on Saturday, back in Riyadh, Usyk will enter the ring as the king. And being king is never easy in the boxing business.

Usyk and Fury have both promised a new and improved version for their rematch; they have each talked about adjustments once the first bell sounds at the Kingdom Arena in the latest of the Riyadh Season of fights. Fury has talked about being more serious and Usyk has talked about doing more of the same, just doing it better. They probably both worked out a way to win during the first fight, which was a slender split decision in the end.

Steve Bunce on Fury vs Usyk 1, and the role of age in their rematch:

Yesterday’s press conference followed Wednesday’s open workouts.

They, too, were intriguing, as Fury laced up his gloves but refused to throw a single punch… before Usyk shadow boxed and danced around the ring.

There was some major news, though: Fury’s head coach, Sugarhill Steward, claimed that the boxer’s father, John, has been axed from their corner team…

Welcome back to our Usyk vs Fury 2 fight-week blog! It feels slightly surreal to say, but fight night is tomorrow…

A huge rematch in Saudi Arabia, as Fury tries to avenge his sole professional loss and take the unified heavyweight belts from Usyk.

At 5pm GMT today, we’ll have the weigh-in, but first, let’s take a look at what happened at yesterday’s press conference.

Little was said before Fury and Usyk faced off for TWELVE, WHOLE, MINUTES.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more build-up to Usyk vs Fury 2, and live updates from the weigh-in.

Here’s the full rundown on what was said, and what happened, at today’s press conference.

The event was less about what was said, in truth, and more about that absurdly long face-off…

WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman arrived at the seven-minute mark to try to separate the boxers. No luck.

Nine minutes gone now, and the rivals have started talking. Fury, as you’d expect, is doing most of the barking.

Ten minutes gone, and some bodies are trying to take Fury away. He’s having none of it.

At 12 minutes, they FINALLY separate! Wow…

Closing remarks from Fury and Usyk.

Fury: “Can’t wait for Saturday night, thank you everybody involved. God bless.”

Usyk: “Don’t be afraid, [Tyson]. I will not leave you alone. See you on Saturday.”

Usyk repeating his words from before their first fight, there.

The fighters share a long, long, long, long face-off. Intense stuff.

It’s been five minutes, and they’re still staring each other in the eye!

Eddie Hearn reiterates his prediction that Fury will win, but he stresses that it will take “something extraordinary” to beat Usyk.

Hearn says Fury is capable of something extraordinary.

Fury’s US promoter Bob Arum praises Usyk’s spirit and strength amid Ukraine’s war with Russia… but he’s backing the “Gypsy King”, of course.

Usyk’s manager Egis Klimas is up now. “We will see once again, Saturday night, who Oleksandr Usyk is.”

Fury’s manager Spencer Brown: “[Fury] has lived like a monk. He thinks he’s had something taken off him that he shouldn’t have. And he wants it back.”

Brown also credits Usyk and the Ukrainians in general for their fighting spirit, but does the same for the “travelling people”.

“His grandmother’s grandmother could fight,” Brown says of Fury, who smirks.