Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk could feature new scoring system to avoid 'catastrophe'

All eyes will turn to Saudi Arabia next month when heavyweights Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk meet for a hugely anticipated bout which could feature a new scoring system in a bid to avoid any controversy.

The fighters had been due to clash in February originally, but the encounter had to be postponed until May 18 after Fury suffered a "freak cut" above his eye in a sparring session as he prepared for the fight.

WBC champion Fury will put his belt on the line against Usyk's WBA, WBO and IBF titles to create a four-belt undisputed heavyweight champion and it bodes to be quite the fight.

Gypsy King Fury, 35, is undefeated so far in his professional boxing career, having picked up 34 wins in 35 bouts, 24 of which have been by knockout.

He only has one draw besides that, which came in December 2018 in the first of his three fights against Deontay Wilder.

Usyk, 37, is also undefeated so far in his career, with 21 victories in as many fights, 14 of these wins coming by knockout.

Clearly, unless there is a draw in the rescheduled encounter, something will have to give and it will be interesting to see how the fight in the Middle East unfolds.

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With so many eyes going to be on this fight, there will naturally be a heavy focus on the judges, whose scores could end up being crucial when it comes to pinpointing a winner, should the bout go the full 12 rounds without a knockout.

Usually, there are three judges who keep scores in boxing clashes, but this could be expanded to six in a bid to avoid any controversy.

World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman has spoken of the intention, after a host of split and majority decision fights of late.

As per Boxing Scene, Sulaiman said: "The more highly skilled judges we have working together, the better.

"If you have a fight when two judges don’t have a good night, that fight is decided, 2-1, by bad cards. If that happens with six judges, the correct fighter wins, 4-2.

"We’ve had too many split decisions and majority decision fights over the last few months. This is not OK.

"It’s easy to say judges need to be better when things go wrong, but why not bring in the top six judges in the world for a major championship fight like this – judges who have been most consistent – and let them decide these important fights?

"If not, we can have someone scoring who may have a bad night, or even be experiencing personal problems.

"Having three judges creates a very thin line between the right result and catastrophe. This is about the biggest fight in history, and controversy would be so damaging."

It would be an interesting move and might help to ease concerns some may have about judging decisions being the main talking point of the fight, rather than the action in the ring itself.