The undisputed heavyweight clash between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury is off.
A few days ago, it looked as if the highly anticipated bout would be going ahead on April 29th, but talks between the two parties have since collapsed.
Usyk’s promoter, Alexander Krassyuk, confirmed the news to Sky Sports in an interview.
“I will try to express how disappointed I am, not just for Usyk, not just for this fight not happening but for all boxing fans around the world,” he said.
“Because this is probably the most anticipated fight, the most awaited fight, the most wanted one, not just from the fans but from our side as well.”
“I would love to see this fight. I would love to make it happen as the promoter. Usyk would love to be part of such a huge fight, we all are willing, we are thirsty to make it happen. Of course we are going to use each and every effort, if there is any. But from my perspective I don’t believe it’s possible.”
It really is a sad day for the sport of boxing, because fans are being robbed of a potential classic.
Usyk’s wife is not happy with Fury
Usyk’s wife, Yekaterina, has since made her feelings towards Fury very clear on Instagram.
Her first story post jokingly claimed that the Gypsy King would be fighting Dereck Chisora for a fourth time, instead of her husband.
In the second post, Yekaterina trolled Fury with an edited image in which he is referred to as the ‘Gypsy Queen’.
She went full savage mode.
Did Team Fury actually want the fight?
Usyk’s manager, Egis Klimas, has seriously questioned whether Fury ever really wanted to lock horns with the Ukrainian – who’s beaten fellow Brit Anthony Joshua twice.
“The Usyk side pulled out of further negotiations as the Fury side never had enough [and wanted] to pull everything and all rights to their side,” Klimas told Sky Sports.
“I don’t want to go into details as all negotiations were confidential but I will tell you one thing, when a fighter doesn’t want to fight he overprices himself knowing that the fight won’t happen.
“They most likely forgot that Usyk is holding the majority of belts in the heavyweight division and Tyson just has one.
“They claimed Tyson is a face and must have all the rights, but look at statistics on pay-per-view with Tyson vs Chisora and Usyk vs Chisora and then tell me who is who?”