Oleksandr Usyk will face Chazz Witherspoon in his heavyweight debut at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Saturday night, live on DAZN in the US and on Sky Sports in the UK. Witherspoon (38-3 29 KOs) second cousin of former two-time heavyweight ruler Tim Witherspoon, is unbeaten in five years with his last win coming in March in Atlantic City over Santiago Silgado and now the 38-year-old Philadelphian gets a huge opportunity to pull off a massive upset as Ukrainian pound-for-pound king Usyk moves up to heavyweight after leaving the cruiserweight division as the undisputed ruler.
“I can’t wait to face Usyk in Chicago,” said Witherspoon. “I have been in training ready for a big fight, and it doesn’t get bigger than this. Oleksandr is stepping up to heavyweight – and he’s going to find out that it’s a totally different game.
“I’ve won my last eight fights and I really feel that I’ve been waiting in the wings for a huge opportunity like this and I am going to put every ounce of myself into the fight on this massive stage.”
Witherspoon replaces Tyrone Spong in the main event on the stacked card in the Windy City after there were adverse findings in two of Spong’s urine samples. As a result, the Illinois State Athletic Commission will not license Tyrone to box and rescinded their approval of the bout with Usyk.
Usyk’s heavyweight bow against Witherspoon is part of a huge night of world championship action in Chicago as Dmitry Bivol defends his WBA world light heavyweight title against Lenin Castillo and unified super lightweight champion Jessica McCaskill defends her WBA and WBC titles against old foe Erica Farias.
Unbeaten super middleweight Anthony Sims Jr returns to action against Morgan Fitch, Charles Conwell defends his USBA super welter title against Patrick Day, an all-Chicago super feather clash between Josh Hernandez and Giovanni Mioletti, former world champion TJ Doheny returns to the ring, Reshat Mati is back after recovering from a shoulder injury and a fourth pro outing for rising starlet Otha Jones III.
Cool match up. Better than Spong.
Jazz has good height and reach and is experienced. This should be a good test for Usyk. I don’t think anyone doubts an Usyk win, but I hope Witherspoon will make it interesting.
He wont because he cant take a punch. He will be a very safe opponent.
Does anyone know why Chazz is suspended until next month?
Fight Nights says that Chazz Witherspoon was recently suspended by the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission for pulling out of a fight. I personally never heard of that before.
This is weird: he was officially suspended until Nov. 20th and now he will be fighting on Oct. 12th.
In any case, I hope it will be an entertaining fight as long as it lasts. Technically speaking, Usyk is at least 2 levels above Chazz, but Chazz is a legit HW, has experience and is not a complete push over.
Just to correct the article (which no doubt came from a press release), TJ Doheny is a former World Champion, not challenger.
I like it Chaz could make it a fun fight and is a more natural heavy I hope he shows up ready for war.
He can’t beat Usyk because Usyk is a manster
He was suspended only in PA.. He’s free to fight in any other state though. What a stupid reason to suspend someone. Thats PA for ya!
Haha i promise you the Illinois boxing commission is worse. Everything about this state is crooked. That’s Democrats for ya!
Democrats haven’t got time to you slow suckers, here’s a fact, republicans can’t govern or fight, what repugs are good at is, shooting off their big mouths in the parent’s basement.
Then please explain to the rest of us why Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, all Democratic ran cities for the last 4 to 5 decades, are all in utter shambles!? They all desperately need Federal aid to survive, and they should NOT get any Federal aid at all!!
That’s right, send the Billions to Israel instead. SMH
Got it backwards. Without CA, there won’t be enough money for the government to give out to begin with.
bro save some MAGA for the rest of us. This is fightnews.com not twitter LOL
This fight (as well as all Usyk fights as heavyweight) will be boring as hell. He may win all his fights but his style does not endear him to fight fans. Trust me, it’ll be stick and move for all 12 rounds.
Witherspoon is a C class fighter, his last named opponent was that fat Mexican who stopped him in 3 rounds.
how fat was the Mexican?
Well, not really a stiff test for Usyk, nor it was Sponge too, as could have been Takam. Any time Chazz has dared to face decent opposition, he has lost by KO (Seth Mitchell, Arreola, Tiger Thompson). Are they better than Usyk? Now, Usyk is not strange to HW, he did it indeed as amateur, and at 6’4”, Chazz is not a big HW, Usyk is 6’3”.
I expect a clinical dismantling that will not last longer than 7 rounds.
Note:Chazz lost to Arreola ”a la Barrera vs. Jr. Jones” when in he was in route to an inevitable KO loss after 2 knockdowns.
Usyk should have started with a better opponent
Obviously Usyk is not looking for any stiff competition in his heavyweight debut. Spoon is a little more credible than Spong, haha! Witherspoon is one of those fighters that is pretty much retired until his phone rings. About 10 years ago he exposed then hot prospect Seth Mitchell in the first round only to end up getting KO’d in the 3rd, but that was 10 years ago. He was slow and prodding then and I doubt he’s gotten any quicker in his old age and inactivity. It’s going to be a very easy fight for Usyk, a soft opening if you will, to his introduction into the heavyweight division. I don’t think Usyk will have much difficulty transitioning to the heavies because of the shallow talent pool and he is one of the biggest looking cruiserweights I’ve seen! Im sure he’s been entering the ring at 220 for his titledefenses. Only difference now is that the’ll be fighting bigger guys.
They need to update his Wikipedia page. It says he hasn’t fought since 2012. Guess he’s been doing ok against limited opposition. Michael Marrone is the best win lately, and used to be prospect, but Marrone got fat and has lost almost every fight since 2008… so doesn’t say much.
I am very feel about this.