Though months have now passed since they collapsed, discussions around the negotiations for an undisputed heavyweight world title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk still crop up in the world of boxing.
A lot of people believe Usyk was given the short end of the stick in the talks, with the fight not happening even though he was willing to accept a 30% purse split.
Pound for pound king, Terence Crawford, has given his two cents on the situation, and says he believes two weight world champion Usyk was “disrespected”.
On a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, undisputed welterweight champion Crawford also described the Ukrainian as a “great fighter.”
“I think it goes back to the business. Usyk is a great fighter and has accomplished great things in the sport of boxing, and for him to get disrespected in the negotiations – which I’m pretty sure is probably what it all came down to – is not right.”
“Who was behind the reason for it not to happen? That’s when you start asking those type of questions. These fights should be mandated to happen, so you can clean up the sport of boxing and we have only one champion in one division.”
Instead of an undisputed showdown with Usyk, Fury will instead face former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in a crossover event in Saudi Arabia on October 28th, though his WBC belt will not be on the line.
Usyk takes on mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois this weekend in Wroclaw, Poland, in what will be his first outing since defeating Anthony Joshua for a second time a year ago.