The champions left the battle – Newspaper Kommersant No. 49 (7494) of 03/23/2023

The most anticipated fight of the year in professional boxing – for the title of absolute world champion between British Tyson Fury and Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk, seems to have fallen through. The reason for the cancellation of the event, which could have provided its organizers and participants with enormous income, was the insurmountable disagreement of the parties over the terms of the contract for the duel. Now Usyk, instead of Fury, apparently has to defend the championship belts of the International Boxing Federation (IBF), the World Boxing Association (WBA) and the World Boxing Organization (WBO) in a duel with a much less famous compatriot of the failed opponent Daniel Dubois.

The fact that the negotiations that lasted several months related to the organization of the fight between Tyson Fury and Alexander Usik were terminated was reported by a number of sources, including ESPN. This channel owned the rights to broadcast the fight in the United States. It was supposed to take place on April 29 at London’s Wembley Stadium. The information was confirmed by the promoter of the Ukrainian heavyweight, holder of the championship belts of the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Association and the World Boxing Organization Alexander Krasyuk. In an interview with a media resource talkSPORT he bluntly said that “the fight is canceled”, adding that the title of the absolute champion remains a “priority” for Usyk, and his representatives “will do everything in their power” to match for him “as quickly as possible”, whoever owns it Fury is now a WBC title.

We are talking about the disruption of an event of gigantic proportions. Fights in which the status of the undisputed champion with all significant belts was at stake in the heavyweight division have not been held for two decades.

In addition, it is important that the fight that Wembley was preparing to take was to bring together two fighters who are extremely popular. Such a poster guaranteed huge incomes for both its organizers and participants. Most publications, predicting the prize fund of the match, noted that it could not be lower than in the replay between Oleksandr Usyk and another famous Briton, Anthony Joshua, held in August last year in Saudi Arabia. It is believed that the payments to each of the fighters amounted to about $40 million.

The sharpness of the story with the cancellation of the fight between Fury and Usyk is given by the fact that about two weeks ago the issue with its holding seemed to be resolved. The fact that it will take place was announced by WBA President Gilberto Mendoza, and the active communication of boxers through social networks confirmed his version. Both made it clear that they were determined to perform, despite the fact that the financial conditions that Fury insisted on seemed rather strange. He demanded a 70/30 split of the prize pool between the two champions in his favor. In boxing, as a rule, only obvious outsiders, who are an order of magnitude inferior to their opponent in fame, agree to such a significant difference. Nevertheless, Usyk admitted that he was ready to accept such a distribution of fees, specifying only that Fury is obliged to donate £ 1 million to Ukraine “immediately after the fight.”

Even last weekend, nothing hinted that a breakdown was possible. Moreover, Tyson Fury’s promoter Frank Warren posted a message in which he called the imminent official announcement of the fight “inevitable”, and, according to the BBC, his staff was already preparing a corresponding press release. Even published on Sunday unexpected WBA ultimatumobliging Fury and Usyk to agree on a contract by April 1, experts perceived it more as an attempt to speed up the too long negotiating process, which does not cancel confidence in its positive outcome.

Speaking about the reasons that led to the termination of this process, Alexander Krasyuk made it clear that the main among them was not the distribution of income, noting that he “got the feeling that after Usyk agreed to 30 percent of the prize fund, Fury thought that he could sit on his neck and demand everything he wanted.

Krasyuk did not detail these “wishes”, explaining only that their enumeration would take a long time and they were in any case “unacceptable and full of disrespect for the world champion in several versions and the former absolute world champion” (Alexander Usik won such a title before the transition at the end of the last decade in the heavyweight category in the first heavyweight, up to 90.7 kg).

According to the BBC, the parties’ most serious disagreement arose over the rematch clause for the loser of the duel. He appeared in the contract between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua, thanks to which these boxers met twice: for the first time, Usyk got the better of Joshua in 2021. The Ukrainian again wanted to include such a clause in the contract, Tyson Fury considered it superfluous.

If the plans of the British after leaving the negotiations with the Ukrainian are covered in fog, then there is, apparently, clarity with the future opponent of Usyk. In its ultimatum, the WBA indicated that in case of refusal to fight for the title of absolute world champion, he will defend the belts in a match against the official contender according to the structure, Daniel Dubois. This young British boxer (he is 25 years old) has suffered only one defeat in 20 professional fights. But Dubois has not yet crossed paths with elite rivals and, in terms of demand, is not even close to his compatriot Fury.

Alexey Dospekhov