Tyson Fury’s promoter, Frank Warren, has provided a positive update in the wake of his fighter and Oleksandr Usyk publicly agreeing terms for an undisputed heavyweight championship fight, despite the clash being just seven weeks away.
Negotiations were threatening to fall through due to a dispute on the financial side of things when Fury – who holds the WBC belt – had his offer of a 70/30 split accepted by Usyk – WBA, WBO and IBF champion.
Whilst contracts are yet to be signed, Warren told TalkSPORT that ‘it’s on’ and confirmed they are still aiming for the strict schedule set weeks ago.
“It’s on. Subject to the contracts being sorted out, everyone is on the same page. We just have to keep moving it along and I’m sure it will happens.”
“That [April 29] would be the date for the fight. At one stage I wasn’t sure if Tyson would be fit for it, but he’s okay.”
“The bottom line is they have both come out and said what they want to do and obviously we have to get the contracts signed. Everybody is working on that to get everything finalised.”
The promoter believes his fighter deserves praise for making it happen.
“Everyone wants to see the fight. Everybody should take their hat off to Tyson Fury because he’s the only heavyweight since going back to those great glory days of Ali, Foreman and Frazier that has fought the best around of the generations he’s been in.”
Warren branded it the biggest heavyweight fight in ‘goodness knows how many years’, and believes it will be record-breaking. In making that claim, he confirmed Wembley Stadium would play host.
“Both are undefeated and both in their prime. It will be a fantastic event and the highest grossing event ever to take place at Wembley, beating the previous one. I’m not talking about about boxing but a one-off event. The previous one was last April again with Tyson.
“He’s a megastar and I’m delighted for him. People should acknowledge in him we’ve got a fighter who doesn’t duck anybody.”
Fury has confirmed his training camp has started and is adamant he needs just six weeks and one week of rest to prepare for what is the biggest fight of his career so far. Usyk has been in the gym since December.