Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight: Heavyweight unification won’t

Recent weeks saw increasing fears that the undisputed heavyweight championship showdown between WBC champion Tyson Fury and WBO, WBA and IBF champion Oleksandr Usyk had fallen apart at the negotiating table. However, every time the fight was declared dead, reports would follow that the two sides had resumed negotiations for the planned April 29 clash. Despite those flashes of hope, all chances of the bout happening in April appear dead as of Wednesday.

Usyk’s promoter, Alex Krassyuk, told Sky Sports on March 10 that he no longer believed Fury was interested in the bout after Fury shot down a proposed purse split of 60-40 in favor of the winner. Even worse, Krassyuk said, Fury’s demands were making the fight an impossibility.

“I can only tell you from the words I hear from my negotiators, my partners Frank and George Warren,” Krassyuk said. “According to their reports, Tyson Fury was asking for too much money. Even if Usyk would get zero for the fight, it would still not be sufficient for Tyson to cover his [demands].”

Later that week, Fury posted a video on Instagram stating that he was offering Usyk and his team a “take it or leave it” deal of a 70-30 purse split in Fury’s favor.

In addition, Fury claimed that for every day the Usyk team didn’t accept the deal, he would remove 1%.

“They want 50%, Usyk and all this ‘Tyson is being greedy,'” Fury said. “From where I’m standing, Usyk, you and your team are worth 30%. You either take it or you leave it. And if you don’t want it, go fight Daniel Dubois and get a few million dollars. If you want to make some real money, come on fight the Gypsy King. I will say, for every day from today that you linger and mess around, I’m going to deduct 1%.”

Usyk’s side opted for the “take it” portion of Fury’s “take it or leave it” offer, with Usyk posting his own video message in response.

“Hey, greedy belly. I accept your offer,” Usyk said….