Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk could have major protocol change after Francis Ngannou controversy

The huge fight between Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk could feature a major change in protocol.

After a nasty cut suffered by Fury in sparring resulted in their proposed bout on February 17 being cancelled, the fight has been rearranged for May 18.

It will still take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a new undisputed world heavyweight champion being crowned for the first time since Lennox Lewis' victory of Evander Holyfield in 1999.

But there could be a dramatic alteration to how the fight is judged, if WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman is able to get his proposal signed off.

Sulaiman is worried about the potential of the historic clash being ruined by bad judging and is advocating for extra judges at ringside.

He thinks that the additions will ensure "the possibility of a wrong score goes to a minimum" and reduces the chance of mass controversy.

"We had proposed to use five judges or six judges," he told Sky Sports.

"However that was not considered. It did not happen. I would still recommend [it].

"We do have a remote scoring system which is used for training and evaluating ring officials from all over the world. They score live in the WBC system that we developed.

"We have found through fights done in this system that the more officials that score a fight, the less possibility of a wrong decision.

"Anybody can have a bad night. If you have one judge have a bad night and the two others get it correct, you still save the fight.

"You have two judges with a difficult fight and then one round can shift the whole result."

Image: Getty

In addition, Sulaiman is also taking steps to ensure instant video replay is deployed for the slugfest.

He is confident it will happen and cited Fury's last fight with Francis Ngannou as an example whereby the referee thought his cut was from a punch, though a replay showed it was a clear headbutt.

He added: "The initial idea was to put together specific guidelines of the usage of instant replay and we're in that process.

So we're going to work with the producers of the feed to see what equipment and what communications are needed, what the review panel will be, just go into details.

"As an example, we did instant replay in the UK with Charlie Edwards and [Julio Cesar] Martinez and we just did instant replay in Fury-Ngannou when Fury was cut.

"The referee he didn't see any action that cut, ruled it a punch and then the British Boxing Board of Control and myself looked at the screen, the big screen in the stadium and saw the head butt so we called it officially a headbutt.

"But the idea of having the possibility of reviewing a major controversial happening inside the ring, to make the right decision, the right call at the time is basically it.

"To have the absolute certainty that there will not be a controversy. That in a fight of this magnitude would be absolutely unacceptable."

Image: Getty

If Fury is to pull out of the fight, it's been clarified that Filip Hrgovic is ready in waiting as the back-up opponent.

Topics: Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, Francis Ngannou

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

@joshlawless_