The long-awaited Heavyweight undisputed bout, which had been first anticipated just a couple years ago when Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder were the reigning champions, has been put on hold again for the unforeseeable future as talks between Fury’s and Usyk’s teams evaporate into thin air.
Despite the promise of Usyk’s promoter, Alex Krassyk, to continue talks for a Heavyweight undisputed match between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, no further talks have been held. Frank Warren, promoter of Tyson Fury, painstakingly admitted that the fight was off in a recent interview. Before this announcement, he had revealed that Usyk’s team hadn’t continued the negotiations since Sunday, but he seemed convinced there was only a couple days to go until the fight was finalized on Talk Sport.
This is not the case now, as Warren expressed in a recent interview with BT Sport: “We agreed all the points, except for the rematch.“
Frank Warren continued to explain that afterwards there were, in essence, no further negotiations held after both teams had agree for the fight to occur on Sunday, until an email had been sent the following day – on Monday – by Usyk’s manager, Egis Klimas, that the fighter chose to discontinue the negotiations – which had already been wrapped up, for the most part.
“We had a conference call on Sunday.” Frank Warren said. “And we got everything more or less agreed, bar the terms of the rematch, and at that stage there was no rematch (but) Tyson conceded.
“On the Monday we got an email from Egis saying they’re pulling the plug on it. I tried to resurrect it again on Talk Sport. They had Alex Krassyk on there, (and) I went on there with him in response to what he said. I said, ‘let’s get it back on’.“
Frank Warren continued on to explain that Krassyk threw in a comment about Tyson Fury and his demands, but Warren pushed aside the implication that Fury was too demanding.
“Why did you say that? We agreed on Sunday, and there’s one outstanding issue. Which is the rematch clause, which shouldn’t really be an issue. The four belts are going to be available this once.
“You said the fight won’t go on at the 29th (of April), it is dead in the water. You’re the one who accepted the terms that Tyson set. We didn’t negotiate; Tyson said it’s 70-30, and you came back and said you want it. We didn’t even negotiate!“
Tyson Fury didn’t make matters easier himself by constantly egging Usyk on through social media throughout the talks between both fighters’ teams, but the negotiations – which Frank Warren claimed involved all the legal and boxing representatives of both fighters – were close to being finished before Usyk pulled out.
Since Fury himself had claimed earlier in the year not to be involved in the negotiations, it was likely that his rants directed at Oleksandr Usyk through social media were more an attempt by him to play mind games – or alternatively to confuse Usyk to the point him cancelling the negotiations.
Usyk’s reasons for pulling out have also not been thoroughly analyzed in the widespread boxing media. Krassyk claimed that Usyk felt like being “ridden like a horse”, which again comes back to Tyson Fury’s insistence of a 70-30 offer and Usyk’s acceptance of it. However, this offer was not officially included in the negotiations and only orally agreed upon by Usyk. In reality, there was a 60-40 split that would go to the winner, and the rematch might have included a 70-30 split but Oleksandr Usyk had decided to stop the negotiations entirely – a day after everything had been virtually agreed upon – before proper talks surrounding this issue could continue.
As of March 22nd, Usyk was also reported to have canceled his training camp for Fury, which further indicating that the fighter had all but given up on concluding the deal for his fight with Tyson Fury; a deal that, again, was virtually done.
Though likely Fury will be getting some public slack for his role in constantly antagonizing Usyk and confusing matters by introducing deals that would not be included in the negotiations anyway, Oleksandr Usyk has also played a pivotal role into how the talks ended, and has been the actual catalyst that has led to the fight being canceled after it seemed close to being tied up.
