By Charles Brun: Eddie Hearn says Tyson Fury got greedy, asking for between 80-125 million for the Oleksandr Usyk fight, and he was rejected. Now, Fury will make considerably less at 50-60 million for the undisputed heavyweight clash with Usyk, yet that’s not enough for him, says Hearn.
The way Hearn views the situation, it’s just flat-out “greed” on Fury’s part, and now he’s going to end up with nothing, with no Usyk fight on April 29th and some godawful fighter standing across from him inside the ring at Wembley Stadium in London.
Unless Fury’s promoters cancel their booking for Wembley Stadium, it could be a ghost town that night if he’s fighting some stew bum dragged in from an alley to be his opponent on the night.
I guess it’s not too late for Fury to trot out journeyman fighters Derek Chisora or Dillian Whyte as his opponent for April 29th at Wembley Stadium, but the British fans aren’t going to buy tickets for those dreadful fights.
Fury not the draw he thinks he is
“Anthony Joshua fought Oleksandr Usyk back to back with no f**king problems,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV when asked about his thoughts on the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk negotiations not progressing due to an impasse over money.
“No questions, no long negotiations. ‘That’s my mandatory, I’ll fight him.’ Everybody said, ‘Swerve Oleksandr Usyk, that’s a tough, tough fight. You don’t want to fight him.’ AJ said, ‘No, I’ll fight him. I want to be undisputed. Give me Usyk.’
“Done. The rematch comes in, ‘Oh, you don’t want to fight Usyk. You need a warm-up fight.’ ‘Give me Usyk,'” said Hearn about what Anthony Joshua said.
“When are you guys going to start understanding? ‘It’s not about money. I’ll fight him for free, as long as the tickets are free for the general public,'” said Hearn, making fun of Tyson Fury.
“F**k off; you want money. You want too much money, and you’re not the draw that you think you are. That fight [Fury vs. Usyk] isn’t as big as you think it is.
Tyson was never going to get 80-125 million
“Everyone talks about big fights in the Middle East with heavyweight world championships. Well, guess what? There’s only one person that has delivered big fights in the Middle East, and that’s mwah. Three fights, three heavyweight world championships. Two in Saudi Arabia and the big card in Abu Dhabi as well.
“Greed, if you’re about legacy and you want to be undisputed, then you take the fight,” said Hearn, scolding Tyson Fury to take the fight with Oleksandr Usyk. “Oh, you’re going to get 50 or 60 million instead of the 80 or 100 or 125 million you asked for.
“F**k me, you’ve all been played all these years, but concentrate on one thing. April the 1st at the O2 Arena. AJ is back against Jermaine Franklin. Never ducked anybody. Never tried to escape from fights. Always wanted these fights, fought all these people in progression.
“He never went on social media saying, ‘I’m going to give all my money away.’ F**k right off. Get behind Anthony Joshua at the O2 Arena, live on DAZN, against Jermaine Franklin.
“Maybe,” said Hearn when asked if he thinks the Fury vs. Usyk clash will happen. “If you want the fight, you have to make concessions. Fury has got a point, he’s the bigger draw.
“When Tyson Fury drew with Deontay Wilder, and he didn’t have a world championship belt, we offered him 60-40 to fight Anthony Joshua as a voluntary challenger, not as a mandatory challenger. As a voluntary challenger. He came back and said, ‘I’ll only fight Anthony Joshua on 50-50.’
“At the time, AJ was the much bigger draw. He was the world unified heavyweight champion, and Tyson Fury had no belts. We said, ‘No, 60-40,’ and the fight didn’t happen. Tyson is worth more than 50-50 in this fight, but if you want to be the first undisputed heavyweight world championship since Lennox Lewis, then you take 50-50, and you get the fight done.
“If he’s [Usyk] a little middleweight and he’s no good, then easy money, but he knows how good Oleksandr Usyk is. But when I go back to our guy [Joshua], ‘I know how good Oleksandr Usyk is. I know he’s the undisputed cruiserweight champion of the world. I know he’s an Olympic gold medalist. I know he’s had 400 fights. I don’t care. It’s my duty as the champion to fight the best,’ and that’s what AJ has always done.
“When are you going to wake up? ‘Oh, legacy.’ That ain’t legacy. Some people care about legacy and some people don’t care about legacy and I care about legacy,” said Hearn.
