The saga of agreements between the WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO and The Ring heavyweight champion Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk and the WBC champion Briton Tyson Fury is endless. Last year, the functionaries promised the fans that it would be easy to agree, but they are still fiddling with already boring details.
Who is to blame and when will everyone get at least some result?
The start of negotiations looked good. Arum promised that there would be no problems
Formally, negotiations between the teams have been going on for several months, but in fact – much longer. Even before the rematch between Usyk and Joshua, Bob Arum was already talking about this option.
Naturally, both Bob Arum and Frank Warren, Fury’s co-promoters, and Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, would have benefited more from Anthony’s victory. Because it is a gigantic event in which both athletes have a huge fan base. But even then, Bob said that they were considering a fight against Usyk.
Moreover, Arum assured that it would be easy to negotiate with Alexander. At that time, they had already tried several times to negotiate with Joshua, and each time nothing worked out for various reasons. Here it seemed that everything would be as it should be.
Bob assured that he and Usyk’s team were literally old friends and it would not be difficult to agree. He told how well he treats Alexander Krasyuk, and generally called Usyk a friend of Lomachenko and his own. But, as is always the case, talk does not equal reality.
For more than four months, Krasyuk, Usyk, Arum, Warren and Fury cannot agree. And it doesn’t look like the British side really wanted that much.
Warren has stated several times that the contract is almost ready. As you can see, all this is nothing more than promises.
Back in winter, the parties began to say that they were about to. Literally a few days – a maximum of a week – and the signatures will stand. But days and weeks passed, and the statements did not change.
Toward the end of winter, surprising notes from the British began to appear. Bob Arum appeared with a statement towards Alexander Krasyuk: “I have a good attitude towards this guy, but I want to give him advice. Let him shut his mouth and stop negotiating through the media.”
Krasyuk later explained what happened. According to the Ukrainian promoter, he always prepares for negotiations in advance. Therefore, this time he gave several interviews in which he said that he offers 50 to 50 and the same division of fees in the event of a rematch, even if Fury loses. “Apparently, they are voicing other conditions to Tyson,” Krasyuk admitted.
It was still a time when the Ukrainian side claimed that they had information that Fury wanted a fight and would have agreed with the 50-50 option. Either the information was incorrect, or Tyson suffered again, but something broke in him. Tyson promised that he would not actively negotiate for the fight, but lately he is the culprit of all the news.
The British champion makes unrealistic demands. And every day makes them harder.
The most interesting thing began in the last days of negotiations – less than a week ago. Negotiations were sluggish, the teams announced demands, but they were not even close to each other.
The Ukrainian team offered several options, and all reasonable. First, since Usyk has more belts and Fury nominally has more fans, the fee must be divided equally. The second is the division of the fee in the proportion of 60 to 40, where 60 percent goes to the winning athlete. At the same time, Krasyuk did not give hope: “I was told that Fury wants so much money that if Usyk agreed to a 100-to-0 split, Tyson would still not have enough.”
And then Fury appeared, who said that he would not negotiate and that his team should deal with it:
“I hear all this talk about the fight, that they want 50 percent, that Tyson is greedy… But from my point of view, Usyk, you and your team are worth 30 percent. Agree, otherwise there will be no fight. If you do not agree, then you will fight Daniel Dubois for several million dollars. If you want to earn real money, fight the Gypsy King. But for every day since today that you’re stuck and messing around, I’m going to take one percent out of thirty. If you don’t agree, fine, fight Dubois for a few million dollars. Tick-tock, tick-tock … Cowards.
The Briton did it just a few hours before the WBA deadline. It seems that he hoped that Usyk simply did not have time or waved his hand. But he did:
“Hey, greedy belly. I accept your 70/30 offer to fight on April 29th at Wembley.
But you promise to donate a million pounds to Ukraine immediately after the fight.
And for each day of your delay, you will pay 1% of your wallet to Ukrainians. Agreed?”.
Played again. Again put the Briton in an uncomfortable position.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Tyson Fury
Tyson replied. And he didn’t seem to answer. He recorded several videos where he shouts some unpleasant things towards the Ukrainian. He said that he was preparing for the fight with Usyk and he needed just a few weeks. But he didn’t say yes. However, the teams have notified the WBA that they have reached an agreement and will be signing within a few days. And what? And they didn’t. Fury came up with the condition again two days later:
“Hi, this is Tyson Fury. I have a short cut.
Today I spoke with a lawyer about the rematch option in the contract for the fight with Oleksandr Usyk. How about the fact that there was not a single e#####about the right to revenge? For both of us. Let’s up the ante completely. You should never worry about what will happen in the future and how many dollars you can get after the defeat.
April 29, no rematch option. The winner takes all, the loser goes home with nothing. How about this? Agree, yo###I’m from###,” Fury said.
Apparently, even Western fans are fed up with it. Tyson was smashed on social media. Firstly, because the whole delay was because of him: he wanted more money, he wanted to take some interest, and he wants to take back the revenge clause. At the same time, the fans themselves say that 70 to 30 is too much, even considering the popularity of the Briton.
Secondly, because it was Tyson who initially spoke about the mandatory revenge clause. This was confirmed by both Usyk and his manager Egis Klimas. Tyson seems to be confused in his own claims.
Who is to blame and what will happen next?
It is obvious to everyone – Tyson pulls. He wants to create conditions under which everything will fail due to deadlines and he will be able to continue to beat some Ngannou and shout at the camera that Usyk and his team are afraid. This is recognized even by part of Fury’s fans. Only fanatics reject all arguments.
Further fight is still possible, but unlikely on April 29, as originally planned. If the teams agree, the match will be rescheduled. Late spring, early summer, one of these options. Too little time for such a duel is left until April 29th.
The deadline for negotiations is the end of the week. Krasyuk said this, and here one should believe. Organizations will not wait any longer. And so they gave a hundred times to postpone everything. Usyk is waiting for Dubois. Fury – Ruiz or someone else.
Can teams disagree? Easily. Fury will come up with another demand or will just twist his tail until the last second. Not to say that Tyson was on fire with this idea. In the UK, as much as in Saudi Arabia, they will not pay, and the defeat will affect Tyson and the impression of him.
Why take the risk?
#Fury #Usyk #agree #blame #succeed
2023-03-15 17:41:00
