Krassyuk gives deadline for Fury vs. Usyk fight

By Boxing News - 03/14/2023 - Comments

By Sam Volz: Alex Krassyuk says this week is the deadline for the contracts to be signed between heavyweight champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk for their April 29 fight at Wembley Stadium in London.

Krassyuk, the promoter for IBF/WBA/WBO champion Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), doesn’t believe the fight with WBC belt-holder Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) will happen because the behavior of the British heavyweight suggests that he doesn’t want this match-up.

YouTube video

As of yesterday, Krassyuk gave little hope that a fight between Usyk and Fury would proceed for April 29th. He believes Fury is intent on wrecking the negotiations with Usyk by playing games with the hurdles he presents.

Thus far, Usyk has agreed to everything that Fury has asked for, but it’s still not enough.

“I would say it’s more probable not to happen rather than to happen. This week is the deadline. [On Tuesday] we expect to get the draft agreement somehow,” Usyk’s promoter Alex Krassyuk said to IFLTV about the possibility of a fight with Tyson Fury happening.

“So probably it would take some time then to review and to see what’s in. I don’t know. This week should definitely be the deadline for all of us.”

“He’s not looking for Tyson Fury. He’s looking for the WBC belt, the one which is pending in his collection,” said Krassyuk about Usyk.

YouTube video

We’ll see which direction Fury takes if he chooses to spoil the fight with Usyk. Based on Fury’s behavior since his trilogy with Deontay Wilder, he doesn’t seem committed to fighting. The drive to keep working is gone from Fury.

Now, the 6’9″ Fury seems lazy, unfocused, and uninterested in his career. When a fighter gets to that stage, they lose before long. Fury is doing an excellent job of avoiding a loss by sabotaging negotiations with quality fighters like Usyk and Joshua. Fury didn’t even want the trilogy match with Deontay Wilder. That fight was forced upon him.

We’ve seen Fury retire, unretire, foil negotiations with Anthony Joshua, and fight two journeymen-level fighters, Derek Chisiora and Dillian Whyte.

If Fury continues to set roadblocks this week, Usyk will be forced to go in a different direction to defend possibly against his WBA mandatory Daniel Dubois next, followed by Filip Hrgovic and Joe Joyce.

If Usyk is still in possession of his three titles after those grueling match-ups, then he can potentially revisit talks for an undisputed clash with Fury.

It’s fair to say the purse split for a Fury-Usyk undisputed clash would look a lot different by then because Usyk’s popularity would be through the roof by that point.

If Fury is still playing it safe, fighting soft targets like we’ve seen from him in his last two fights against Derek Chisora and Dillian Whyte, his negotiating position will be significantly weakened for a fight with Usyk.

Of course, that won’t prevent Fury from trying to negotiate the same deal as before, and he’d be laughed out of the room by Krassyuk.

YouTube video