Jakarta –
The duel for the status of true heavyweight boxing champion between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury did not take place. No agreement was reached between the two parties.
The betting match for the five championship belts is actually scheduled to take place on April 29 at Wembley. But now it looks like Usyk will have a WBA mandatory fight to face Daniel Dubois instead of facing Fury.
Usyk’s manager, Egis Klimas, assessed that Fury’s party seemed reluctant to compete against his client. This is reflected in the unreasonable demands of the British boxer in the negotiations.
“Usyk’s side has backed down from further negotiations because Fury’s side can’t get enough (and want) to take all the benefits for their side,” Klimas told Sky Sports.
“I don’t want to go into details because the whole negotiation process is confidential, but I can say one thing. When a boxer doesn’t want to fight, he will ask for an exorbitant price, he knows the fight won’t happen.”
“They probably forgot that Usyk holds the majority of the belts at heavyweight, and Tyson only has one,” explained Klimas.
It is known that Fury indeed asked for a high fee, with a percentage of 70 for him compared to 30 for Usyk. As long as Fury is willing to make a significant donation to Ukraine, Usyk will accept it.
According to the BBC, one of the cancellations of this agreement was because Fury did not want a rematch, while Usyk wanted this. That reflects on his duel against Anthony Joshua.
Even though Usyk won two fights against Joshua, he gave Joshua the opportunity to rematch after losing the first fight. Now, the WBA requires Usyk to find a new opponent if he cannot reach an agreement with Fury by April 1.
Usyk is the owner of the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring heavyweight belts. He only moved up to heavyweight in 2019 after becoming the true cruiserweight champion.
Meanwhile, Fury is the WBC heavyweight boxing champion. He once owned all the belts that Usyk now holds in 2015 after defeating Wladimir Klitschko, but ‘lost’ the title after not competing for more than two years.
He then appeared again in 2018 and finally became the WBC heavyweight champion in 2020 after defeating Deontay Wilder. To date, he has defended the title three times.
(adp/raw)
