By Charles Brun: Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight negotiations appears to be on their last legs, about to collapse on April 29th. The hopes of taking advantage of the vast money available in Saudi Arabia have flown out the window with talk of WBC heavyweight champion Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) having asked for too much green stuff.
Now, it’s not looking at all good that the Fury-Usyk negotiations can be salvaged by moving the fight over to Wembley Stadium in London. As Eddie Hearn points out, there’s no way for the Fury vs. Usyk fight to take place in the UK because the money isn’t there for that kind of fight to make either of them happy.
Fury’s dad, John Fury, says IBF, WBA & WBO champion Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) isn’t equal to Tyson and needs to forget about a 50-50 deal.
John wants Usyk to know his place and to try Fury like a “great champion,” which is code for him needing to take the smaller money. It almost sounds like John wants Usyk to treat Fury like he’s royalty from Buckingham Palace, do the bowing bit, scraping the floor.
That’s not Usyk’s mindset. He’s the guy with all the belts, whereas Fury’s lone WBC title was won after he roughed up former champion Deontay Wilder in a fight that saw the Alabama native put over by a textbook rabbit punch.
Usyk must treat Tyson like a “great champion”
“Treat Tyson as the great champion he is. Stop trying to be the A-side,” said John Fury to iD Boxing, sending a message to Oleksandr Usyk that he’s not worthy of a 50-50 split against Tyson Fury.
“Usyk is not Tyson’s equal. Fall in line; you’ll get the fight done. Do not respect Tyson; you will NOT get the fight.
It’s fair to say that the Fury-Usyk fight would have been made already if Fury hadn’t reportedly asked for too much money from the Saudis. Usyk had already made his separate deal with the Saudis and was happy.
If Fury had made his own deal with them, there would be no issues, but, of course, that would also depend on whether he actually wants this fight. Some people believe that Fury is intentionally fouling up the negotiations because he wants no part of a fight with the craft Usyk, who is all wrong for him.
Instead, they believe that Fury wants the easy money against boxing novice Francis Ngannou, who has never fought inside the squared circle, and it would be lacing them up for the first time if he and Tyson fought.
Is Fury the A-side?
“Tyson’s the A side; Usyk’s not worthy of 50/50. He couldn’t sell the O2 out. So fall in line, and you might get the fight,” said John Fury, sending a dire message to Usyk.
Charles Brun can see the direction the negotiations are going in, and it looks like this fight isn’t going to happen. Fury clearly doesn’t want it, and the match-up is going like his recent negotiations with Anthony Joshua did.