“Tyson. Hi, my brother. Don’t be afraid. I will not leave you alone.”

Oleksandr Usyk kept it succinct and polite when asked by BBC Sport if he had a message for fellow heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury.

Fury, 35, is the WBC champion while Ukraine’s Usyk, 37, holds the WBA, WBO and IBF belts.

A fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion in the four-belt era has been pushed back from 17 February to 18 May after Fury suffered a cut to an eye in training.

Usyk, who will now return to Ukraine, has revealed he missed the birth of his second child on 28 January as he trained in his camp in Spain.

“I’m still happy – things happen, it’s life,” he said.

“I’m very happy because I now go to Ukraine. I see my two daughters and my wife. I go to my church and pray. A little bit of rest and back to my camp.”

The bout has been rescheduled three times now. It was originally set for Wembley in April 2023 before negotiations failed at the last moment.

Fury’s tougher-than-expected win against debutant Francis Ngannou in October then delayed a proposed December bout.

Usyk’s manager Alex Krassyuk says his fighter had to box before 18 May or face being stripped of the IBF belt.

If Fury withdraws from the contest again, Usyk will face Briton Anthony Joshua or IBF mandatory Filip Hrgovic, according to Krassyuk.

Source: BBC Sport