Frank Warren, co-promoter for WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, stands firm that his unbeaten fighter is not the person to blame for the failed negotiations to make an undisputed fight with WBA, IBF, IBO, WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk.
A few months ago, the two camps were in serious discussions to make an undisputed fight on a date in April at Wembley Stadium in London.
The fight was agreed upon with a 70-30 monetary split in favor of Fury.
But, their discussions fell apart when the two sides were unable to agree on the terms for the rematch. Usyk – if he won – wanted a 70-30 split in his favor in the second fight. Fury was willing to agree to an even 50-50 split.
Over the weekend, it was announced that Usyk had signed a promotional agreement with a Middle East promotional company, Skill Challenge Entertainment.
Warren explains that Usyk has continued to call Fury a “greedy” person, but the veteran promoter indicates that is was greed that led Usyk to sign his new promotional deal.
Warren also revealed that a new offer had been made to Usyk, for a fight in the summer, and there was no response – as the Ukrainian boxer was finalizing his pact with Skill Challenge.
“All Usyk is interested in is, getting a big payday and fighting for big paydays in Saudi Arabia,” Warren told Talk Sport.
“I don’t blame him for that. I understand that but don’t make it that Tyson is the greedy person. You go to Saudi Arabia because they are going to pay a lot of money and that’s what it is.
“If you’re getting paid three or four times the amount of money, whether you want to call it greed, good business, or whatever, that’s not down to Tyson Fury. That’s the reason he didn’t want to fight Tyson Fury in the UK. We offered him that fight over the summer, and we kept it very quiet, we haven’t banged on about it, and in the interim period Usyk never came back with anything.”
Usyk is slated to fight in the month of August, in a mandatory defense against WBA ‘regular’ champion Daniel Dubois.
Fury is still without a finalized opponent for his next fight.