With the seeming collapse of the Tyson Fury versus Oleksandr Usyk heavyweight unification fight, a post-mortem has begun as to why such a fight has failed to materialise.
After all, a date was set for the 29th of April, a fight purse had been agreed upon, even if it was ludicrously in Fury’s favour, and all details seemed to be on the verge of being ironed out.
As was the issue a couple of weeks back when the fight first looked destined to collapse, it seems the pay packet was the deciding factor, although this time it was to do with the pay split on a potential rematch.
When Fury initially took to Instagram a couple of weeks back to demand a whopping 70/30 split in his favour, the fight looked unlikely given the ridiculousness of the Brit’s demands, but to everyone’s surprise, Usyk agreed.
For a potential rematch, it seems Fury has demanded the same split regardless of who wins the first fight, meaning that if Usyk were to overcome Fury, Fury would still receive a massive majority of the cash on a return fight.
After pulling the plug on the fight, Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk has now revealed that other issues also damaged negotiations, but that the rematch was the biggest stumbling block.
He also moved to quash any rumours that despite the 70/30 split, this would have been Usyk’s biggest payday.
Would fighting Tyson Fury be Oleksandr Usyk’s biggest payday?
“Everyone’s trying to convince that Usyk would have his [highest] payday fighting Tyson Fury, but it’s not true. It’s not true. The money Usyk is supposed to make in this fight, probably three times smaller than he made in his last fight (vs Anthony Joshua).
“So it’s not the payday for Usyk 100%, and it’s not even close to it. He accepted it as the man of boxing, because he wanted to be a part of the heavyweight undisputed fight. He wanted to deliver this to the whole world, and especially to his homeland, to the country of Ukraine, where he is one of the biggest inspirations.”
In response to Krassyuk’s comments, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn has made light of the situation by calling for some money back on the Joshua vs Usyk fight.
Eddie Hearn responds to pay difference between Fury and AJ fights for Usyk
Hearn tweeted: “Too late for a small refund?” in response to an article on the differing fight purses.
Boxing fans are naturally furious at the collapse of a potential fight to unify the heavyweight belts with much of the blame being pointed at Fury for his extraordinary demands and Krassyuk’s comments would seem to emphasise this further.
The WBA have set a deadline of the 1st of April to get the Fury vs Usyk fight officially organised for the proposed date, but for now, a renewal in talks seems highly unlikely.
