Oleksandr Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk says the fight against Tyson Fury is now off for April 29th because he didn’t want to compromise in the negotiations.
With the negotiations now off, Krassyuk says talks will begin this weekend between Usyk’s WBA mandatory Daniel Dubois. He’s coming off a bad knee injury from last December, and Krassyuk isn’t certain whether he’ll be ready to face Usyk soon.
If not, Usyk will move on to his next mandatory for his other two titles.
Krassyuk says Fury insisted on a 50-50 split for the rematch instead of the 70-30 split that Usyk had asked for, which wouldn’t work.
Krassyuk revealed that the 70-30 split that Usyk wanted for the rematch went both ways, meaning that if Fury won the April 29th fight, he would get the 70-30 split for the second fight.
However, Fury wasn’t going to budge with insistence on getting a 50-50 split for the rematch if he were to go into it as the loser.
Fury wouldn’t compromise
“The split in the rematch was the point that gave ignition, and it just exploded,” said Oleksandr Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk to iFL TV, discussing how the negotiations with Tyson Fury blew apart today for their hoped-for undisputed heavyweight fight on April 29th in London.
“We worked on a solution, and at some point, we stopped,” Krassyuk said about his talks with Fury’s promoters Frank and George Warren, attempting to find a solution to get beyond the impasse. “We were desperate to find a compromise.
“Tyson didn’t want to compromise. Usyk stayed in training camp for three months because the original date was in February. Fury didn’t even train. He [Usyk] accepted 70-30, but how much would he have to accept more?
“He [Usyk] agreed to 70-30 [for April 29th], having in mind that the winner would have 70-30 for the rematch. If you’re fighting in England, you can be robbed by the judges. We’ve had this in the past.
“Usyk, when he accepted 70-30, his understanding was 70-30 would be the split for the winner for the rematch,” said Krassyuk about the 70-30 split for the rematch would apply to whoever won the April 29th fight, be it Fury or Usyk.
“My first approach was we have it 50-50 for the first fight and 50-50 for the second fight. So none of the fighters lost the incentive to train. We know what happened to Tyson after Klitschko.
“The anticipated purse for Usyk [against Fury] would be three, four times lower than his previous fight [against Joshua]. So when I hear people say that Usyk is going to earn extraordinary money, this is not true.
Tyson priced himself out with Saudis
“It’s just a normal fight for Usyk money-wise, but he’s taking that. No, he’s not accepting that anymore,” said Krassyuk. “What could happen in Saudi Arabia is not the rematch but the undisputed heavyweight championship because April 29th is off now.
“We can make this deal [with the Saudis], but imagine Tyson negotiating with the Saudis and asking more, more, more and more. So he knows the money is in place. ‘Usyk is making how much? I want two times more.’ What will happen? Nothing is going to happen because he will price himself out.
“That’s what he did in the first attempt, and that’s what he did in the second attempt, and that might happen in the future as well. His biggest asset is selling tickets,” said Krassyuk, pointing out that Fury only sells a lot of tickets for his fights, but NOT PPV buys. Fans don’t purchase his fights in large numbers on pay-per-view for some reason.
“Of course, I spoke with Frank, and we both admitted that the fight is off. So we accepted it, and we agreed to speak over the weekend to discuss the mandatory [Daniel Dubois for Usyk].
“Usyk vs. the mandatory is the most likely to happen next. It should be the WBA. Normally, the next in line is the WBA, but depending on Dubois’ health, if he’s fit to fight, that will be the case.
“You remember his last fight. That was a severe knee injury. I had that injury myself, and it took me more than a half a year to recover six years have past, and I still feel the pain in my knee after the surgery,” said Krassyuk.
