Unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk gave his side of what went on with his recent futile attempts at negotiating a fight with WBC champion Tyson Fury for April 29th.
Usyk says that once he realized that Fury was playing games, he pulled out of the negotiations and gave up. He’ll now defend against his WBA mandatory Daniel Dubois in the summer while Fury does whatever.
If there is an undisputed fight between Usyk and Fury, it might not happen until next year. Usyk has three mandatorys that he must take care of before he can revisit the Fury fight, and there’s no way of knowing if he’ll get through those fights without losing.
Fury doesn’t have a mandatory due so that he can face anyone, but he definitely has pressure to face a quality opponent after he failed in negotiations with Usyk and Anthony Joshua. Fans don’t want to see Fury fight another journeyman like Derek Chisora or Dillian Whyte.
Try as he might, Usyk was met with roadblocks by the 34-year-old Fury, who wasn’t easy for him to negotiate with compared to Anthony Joshua. Usyk had no issues setting up two fights with Joshua, one in Saudi Arabia.
“I see that nothing is going on, he is trying to play us, and I said, ‘That’s all, bye,’” said Oleksandr Usyk to Volodymyr Kobelkov about how he gave up his attempts to negotiate a fight with Tyson Fury once he realized he was just playing games and not seriously interested in a fight.
The 2012 Olympic gold medalist, former undisputed cruiserweight champion, and current IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champ Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) had hoped to face Fury initially in Saudi Arabia, but when that failed to happen, they were going to move the contest to Wembley Stadium in London, which meant less money for both.
“He says, ’70/30, I am the king. It’s all thanks to me.’ I don’t respond to that,” said Usyk about Fury. I understand that this is a mental game. The king is the king. And the king does not need to shout that he is the king.
“He is trying very hard to copy the great Muhammad Ali, but the copy is very bad.”
Fury could face Joe Joyce or Anthony Joshua next, as long as he can negotiate with one of them. If Fury plays games with them, he could wind up with nothing.
