Oleksandr Usyk’s team slam Tyson Fury’s ‘unacceptable, disrespectful demands’ after fight talks collapse
OLEKSANDR USYK’S promoter confirmed talks to fight Tyson Fury are over – following too many “unacceptable” and “disrespectful” demands.
Usyk publicly accepted Fury’s “greedy” offer of just a 70/30 split to unify all four belts on April 29 at Wembley.
But behind the scenes organisers struggled to get the deal over the line as the target date fast approached.
Now Usyk’s team have spoken out to confirm the collapse of the historic title unification and pinned the blame on Fury.
Promoter Alex Krassyuk told talkSPORT: “The fight is called off. The reason for that is it went too far.
“There was a feeling that after Usyk accepted 70-30, Tyson Fury started thinking that he could put a tether around his neck and start riding Usyk as much as he can.
“It’s not right. I mean, Usyk accepted the 70-30 split as a courtesy, he was so loyal, and he was so willing to make this fight happen.
“But the fight isn’t about Tyson Fury, the fight is about the WBC belt that is pending in his collection.”
Usyk’s team believed they called Fury’s bluff by accepting the slim purse split for what is a super-heavyweight fight.
But despite the financials being agreed upon the deal is believed to have broken down due to a disagreement over other material terms.
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Usyk is now expected to face mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois, 25, which the WBA have already ordered if talks with Fury fell apart.
Krassyuk said: “If I start telling you the list of things he wanted, one, five, ten, or 15 minutes will not be enough.
“There was a list of things he wanted to get in his favour that was absolutely unacceptable, which were completely disrespectful to the unified champion and former undisputed champion.
“I cannot disclose the negotiations, it’s part of the ethics. So, if I start to go into the details, it won’t look good.
“Maybe, if the other party would be willing to take the decision to disclose what were the things then we can talk about it.
“At this time, I cannot do this just for this reason…. With huge regret in my heart, I must admit [the fight is off]… [Usyk] will take a short break and comply with his mandatories.”
The fight would have promised to put all four heavyweight belts on the line for the first time in history.
And Usyk, 36, was attempting history in trying to become the first men’s two-weight undisputed champion.
But Krassyuk insisted Fury, 34, denied them the opportunity by purposely putting roadblocks in their route to getting the deal done.
He said: “If it’s so complicated that Tyson tries to avoid it by putting so many obstacles in front while making the deal then there’s no need to put more effort in and we just go our way.
“The only thing that stays in my mind, we can claim very clearly that undisputed stays our highest priority and we will do our best to make it happen in the shortest period of time, and whoever is the temporary holder of the WBC belt we will try to make it happen.”