By Shaun Murphy-
Unbeaten World heavyweight champion Tyson Fury,(pictured) has been accused of ducking undisputed world heavyweight champion, Olegsander Usyk, despite being offered a favourable 60-40 split for a long awaited unified title fight on April 29.
Usyk’s promoter revealed that his charge was willing to accept a smaller portion of the revenue from a potential fight with Tyson Fury, adding that the latter rejected that proposal, to avoid the fight.
Fury will be favourite to retain his title when the pair eventually meet, but talented Usyk who beat Joshua twice to gain the official top spot, is a good underdog, capable of springing up an unexpected surprise. The latest revelations that Fury, who at 6ft 9 inches, towers over the Ukranian, will come as disappointing news to boxing fans.
Alexander Krassyuk informed talkSPORT on Wednesday that the holdup in negotiations for the undisputed heavyweight championship is on Fury’s part, not Usyk’s.
Krassyuk said he had an agreement with Fury’s backers—Frank Warren’s Queensberry and Bob Arum’s Top Rank—to split the revenue down the middle but then Fury rejected the idea. Krassyuk said that his team subsequently agreed to a 60-40 split, on the condition that the winner of the fight takes 60. Krassyuk said Fury rejected that as well.
It appears Fury wants the larger share of the purse at all cost, and is showing some lack of confidence, in refusing to an agreement that sees the winner earn 60% of the overall purse.
The usual confident Fury, who considers Usyk a middleweight heading for his first defeat, would have been expected to easily accept the fight.
Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: “Frank Warren said he’s got a pot and he needs to get the agreement of both parties to participate, and if the money in the pot is not enough it won’t happen.
“I completely agree with it. On our side, we have nothing more to add.
“We are not asking for a figure, we are asking for a split and probably the split doesn’t work well if someone is asking for a figure, and I can definitely say that it’s not our party.
“We have said that we want this fight to happen as much as possible and we are in the position to share whatever the fight generates.
“If it generates a lot, then we are happy to share it. If it doesn’t, it is what it is.
“But it’s all about the glory, it’s all about the legacy, it’s all about the huge thing, the fight has never happened before so we are really thirsty to make it happen.
“We initially agreed for 50/50,” Krassyuk said, “But then Tyson was asking for some bigger money.
“So, [we] made it clear that we are ready to go 60/40, but the winner takes 60. That was our latest offer.”
Asked if Fury turned down that proposal, Krassyuk answered, “Yes, exactly.”
Krassyuk suggested that Fury is demanding a specific financial “figure,” stating this to be responsible for the delay in negotiations.
“Frank Warren said he’s got a pot and he needs to get the agreement of both parties to participate, and if the money in the pot is not enough it won’t happen,” Krassyuk said. “I completely agree with it. On our side, we have nothing more to add.
“We are not asking for a figure, we are asking for a split and probably the split doesn’t work well if someone is asking for a figure, and I can definitely say that it’s not our party. We want this fight as much as possible. We have said that we want this fight to happen as much as possible and we are in the position to share whatever the fight generates. If it generates a lot, then we are happy to share it. If it doesn’t, it is what it is.”
“But it’s all about the glory, it’s all about the legacy, it’s all about the huge thing, the fight has never happened before so we are really thirsty to make it happen,” Krassyuk continued. “But boxing is a sport of two men and if only Usyk gets into the ring, there won’t be a match for undisputed. It will be shadowboxing of the unified champion.
“What can I say? We are open, we are ready to go. Maybe someone wants to avoid the danger and to stay in a comfortable position. I don’t know, and I really don’t care. If Tyson doesn’t show up, OK, we still have the belts and we go our way.”
Krassyuk offered a mixed response on his thoughts of whether or not the fight will materialize.
“Normally when a fighter does not want to take a fight, he asks for something impossible, so it doesn’t take place,” Krassyuk said. “On the other side, I’m really optimistic.
“Maybe Tyson is not ready yet. Maybe he is not ready mentally, maybe he’s not ready physically, whatever, I don’t know, and we don’t really care. We want to make it happen. If he doesn’t want it, we can’t make him want it. So what can I say? The fight should happen someday.”