Frank Warren has moved to clarify the split that Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk would get if they met.
The pair are in talks to clash in an undisputed heavyweight title showdown, with it potentially happening before the end of the year.
Fury, the WBC champion, was called out by Usyk last weekend after he beat Anthony Joshua for the second time.
The Ukrainian southpaw (20-0, 13 KOs) outpointed ‘AJ’ via a bizarre split decision at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia and called out ‘The Gypsy King’ (32-0-1, 23 KOs) in the immediate aftermath.
Fury, who recently issued a deadline of September 1 for the suitors of the fight to secure the funds to make the confrontation, which would also be for the WBA Super, IBF, IBO, WBO and Ring Magazine titles in the sport’s premier division, was quick to accept the challenge.
And now Warren, who promotes Fury in the UK alongside Bob Arum of Top Rank, who looks after his Stateside affairs, has spoken about the negotiations.
He told talkSPORT:
“The terms of the deal are really simple, it will be a 50/50 split, but it’s where we can generate the most income to make it work.
It’s an easier fight to make instead of Joshua because there are no rival promoters involved. Usyk’s people are free agents and that’s not a problem.”
Joshua (24-3, 22 KOs) is promoted by Eddie Hearn of Matchroom and has been since making his debut back in October 2013. He recently signed a mammoth broadcast deal, committing his future to the streaming platform DAZN.
But Usyk is now free of any broadcast options and is also understood to be a free agent promotionally.
Warren, who insisted that Joshua is now in the ‘catch-up club’ after his second defeat at the hands of the undefeated Usyk, added:
“Regarding whether there will be a rematch, I don’t know really. It depends on what package is put together.
What I’m focused on is getting the fight on. That’s the one we want to see.”
Saudi Arabia would be an obvious choice to host the fight which would crown the first undisputed heavyweight world champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999, but even the oil-rich country – which appears set to stage its third world heavyweight title fight, having hosted Usyk’s win over Joshua last weekend as well as ‘AJ’s’ win in the rematch against Andy Ruiz back in December 2019 at the Diriyah Arena in Diriyah, just six months after he was dropped four times in seven rounds at Madison Square Garden in New York in the June of that year – will struggle to meet Fury’s exorbitant demands.
The aforementioned Arum revealed earlier this week that he was hopeful “the biggest heavyweight fight since [Muhammad] Ali vs. [Joe] Frazier” could be made, with December 17 in play as the date for a mouthwatering outdoor clash in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, on the night before the FIFA World Cup final in neighbouring Qatar.