Tyson Fury’s promoter Frank Warren is listing a deadline of this week for the negotiations with IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk to be completed for their undisputed heavyweight fight on April 29th.
If the fight doesn’t get made, Usyk will have mandatory defenses to get out of the way, and there’s no telling whether he’ll make it through those fights with his titles still in his possession.
For his part, Fury will need to soon make a defense of his own against his mandatory, and it’s unclear whether he’d be motivated to do that. Fury is at the point of his career where he wants to hand-pick his opponents, and he’s become difficult to negotiate with.
Without going into any details about what the sticking point is for the talks, Warren says there’s a pot of money that’s available for the fight, and he can only pay Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) and Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) what is in that pot. If that money isn’t enough, the fight won’t happen.
Warren didn’t say whether Wembley Stadium is still the destination for the Fury-Usyk fight or if Saudi Arabia is one of the options.
It’s been reported earlier that Fury priced himself out by asking for too much money from the Saudis after Usyk had previously made a deal with them. If that’s the case, one can understand why Usyk might be reluctant to take a take that’s less than what he would have received if the fight had been staged in Saudi Arabia.
It’s unclear what kind of money Fury was asking for from the Saudis, but he might be kicking himself now if the pot he’s dealing with in UK money is considerably less than what he would have got if he’d made a deal with the Saudis.
With WBC heavyweight champion Fury insisting on being the A-side despite having fewer belts than IBF, WBA & WBO champion Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), it’s understandable why they’re at an impasse.
If you throw in that Usyk had already made a deal with the Saudis, it’s understandable why he might not be happy now having to settle for less to fight in London in Fury’s backyard.
“We’re still none the wiser; we’re still waiting for it to be done, it’s all coming to a head now, but it’s still not done,” said Frank Warren to talkSPORT Boxing about the Fury vs. Usyk negotiations. “You need the agreement of both boxers to make it happen, and at the moment, we haven’t got that.
“I would say it’s not going to go past the end of this week, that’s for sure, because the proposed date is April 29.”
“I have a pot, and out of that pot, I can only pay what’s in it, and if it’s not enough money, the fight won’t happen; we’re running a business,” said Warren.
