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Mike CoppingerESPN
Talks to finalize the undisputed heavyweight championship fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk on April 29 at London’s Wembley Stadium have broken off, sources connected to both fighters told ESPN.
The sides agreed on a 70-30 split in favor of Fury for the net revenue earlier this month, but Fury and Usyk couldn’t agree on other material terms critical to the deal beyond the split, sources said. Usyk, a 35-year-old Ukrainian, has shut down his training camp, according to sources, and will regroup with his team to plot his next fight.
“No matter how much Usyk compromised, he was pushed for more,” Usyk’s manager, Egis Klimas, told boxing reporter Steve Kim, who first reported that talks had fallen apart.
Usyk holds the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles and is ranked No. 2 by ESPN at heavyweight. Fury, the WBC champion, is ESPN’s No. 1 heavyweight. Three mandatory challengers are waiting for their shot at Usyk, but England’s Daniel Dubois is up first in the rotation system used for boxing’s unified champions.
Ahead of the March 10 deadline imposed by the WBA for Fury and Usyk to agree to a deal — and hold off the official order for an Usyk-Dubois bout that would spoil such plans to crown an undisputed champion — the sides both informed WBA president Gilberto Mendoza that a tentative agreement was reached.
Fury and Usyk continued to argue over the negotiations on social media before Mendoza set an April 1 deadline for signed contracts to be received. Now, the WBA is poised to order a fight between Usyk and Dubois unless a last-ditch effort can be made to salvage a fight against Fury.
“They want 50%, Usyk and all this ‘Tyson is being greedy,'” Fury, ESPN’s No. 7 pound-for-pound boxer, said in an Instagram video March 10. “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 at the Copper Box [Arena in London] and get a few million dollars.
“If you want to make some real money, come and fight ‘The Gypsy King.’ … I will say, for every day from today that you linger, mess around, I’m going to deduct 1% from the 30%. … Sign the contract, get your money and get f—ed up. … Tick, tock.”
As part of the deal, Usyk asked Fury to donate $1 million to relief efforts in Ukraine as the country continues to defend itself from Russia’s invasion. The fight, one of the biggest boxing can deliver, was set to be offered on ESPN pay-per-view in the U.S., sources said.
“Hey greedy belly, I accept your offer, 70/30 split to fight on April 29 at Wembley,” Usyk, ESPN’s No. 3 pound-for-pound boxer, wrote on Instagram that same day. “But you will promise to donate 1 million pounds to Ukraine immediately after the fight. And for every day of your delay, you will pay 1 % from your purse to Ukrainian people. Deal?”
Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs), 34, last fought in December with a 10th-round TKO of Derek Chisora to retain his heavyweight title. Before that, he stopped Dillian Whyte in six rounds in April 2022.
Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), 36, won his three titles by defeating Anthony Joshua via unanimous decision in September 2021. He retained his unified championship with a split-decision win in the August rematch.
A Fury-Usyk matchup would crown boxing’s first undisputed heavyweight champion in the four-belt era.