TalkSPORT spoke to both Fury’s and Usyk’s representatives on Wednesday morning, with the two camps hashing out a potential deal to save the fight that ultimately fell apart.
Tyson Fury’s UK co-promoter Frank Warren and Oleksandr Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk both joined White and Jordan just before midday to explain the latest with the undisputed heavyweight world title fight, which had been targeted for April 29 at Wembley.
Frank Warren revealed ‘progress’ has been made as he reiterated he has ‘no issues’ with Usyk. It appears the blockbuster undisputed heavyweight world title fight Fury vs Usyk is still very much in the works and could yet be salvaged.
The cause for problems between Tysons Fury and Usyk have revolved primarily around issues with the purse split for the rematch clause. Usyk’s manager Egis Klimas and promoter Alex Krassyuk have both commented that the deal is off due to a ‘list of demands’ from Fury. Though the specifics of what exactly that was was only revealed when Fury’s UK co-promoter Frank Warren joined the discussion on talkSPORT shortly before midday. He then revealed the main cause of dispute is indeed the purse split should a rematch take place. It was also reveled that Fury initially wanted a 70/30 split but ultimately agreed to keep a rematch clause in the event of an extension of the fight’s contract.
Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk’s representatives conducted a live exchange on talkSPORT in an attempt to salvage their undisputed heavyweight world title fight. Warren as asked to confirm that the fight is off and replied: “No, I’m not confirming it’s off.
“All I’ve had from him [Klimas] officially was an email that said, ‘Gentlemen, hope you’re okay, I’m not going into details, start to blame or point the finger to anyone, but we’d like to officially announce that Team Usyk is out of further negotiations regarding the April 29 fight.’
“We got that yesterday, that’s the first we heard of it.”
Explaining the issue obstructing the fight from being a done deal, Warren continued: “We got it all out the way except for one issue and that was the rematch.
“Tyson publicly stated that we should scrap the rematch, this was to simplify the deal.
“Rematch clauses can be very difficult and Tyson’s been there before when a rematch blocked a fight with him and Anthony Joshua [in 2021] when Deontay Wilder took him to court. That kyboshed that fight with Joshua.
“Anyway, I convinced Tyson to take the rematch [with Usyk] and he did. So I told them on Sunday we’re gonna go with the rematch.
“Then we got into a situation with how is the rematch money gonna be split and that’s what we’ve been working on…
“Why can’t it be overcome if he wants the fight? We want the fight, why can’t it be overcome?… There’s no reason for this fight to be off.”
Warren added: “You know why they want the rematch clause? Because it’s two paydays.
“Where are they gonna earn the type of money they can earn fighting Tyson twice?
“They aren’t gonna get that type of money to fight Filip Hrgovic, Joe Joyce or Daniel Dubois [Usyk’s three mandatory challengers].
“But Tyson brings a lot of money to the table, that’s why they want it…
“We are willing to take the same deal as what they did for their rematch with Anthony Joshua.
“I know what that deal is so we’ll go with that, no problem with that.”
After their discussion, Warren reported that there had been progress made in resolving the issues. This is in direct contrast of the announcements by Klimas and Krassyuk that the deal was off. It appears the bout is still very much in the works and might yet be salvaged. With this latest development, Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk still remains a highly anticipated showdown to look forward to.