Frank Warren, the UK promoter of Tyson Fury, has revealed emails sent from Oleksandr Usyk’s team regarding the collapse of the fight.
Fury and Usyk looked all set to face off on April 29th at Wembley stadium to crown the first undisputed king of the heavyweight division since Lennox Lewis.
Accusations have been flying around as to where the blame lies for negotiations falling apart.
Speaking to iFL TV at an event after talks were officially stopped, Frank Warren read out an email from Egis Klimas, Usyk’s manager, suggesting that the Ukrainian’s team were the ones to officially pull the plug.
“Gentlemen, hope you are all OK. I am not going into details as well start to blame or point the finger at anyone, but would like to officially announce that team Usyk is out of further negotiations regarding April 29 fight.
You guys can put your pencils down and we will speak in the near future.”
Warren went on say that was the first time he had heard the deal was dead.
“That’s the first I heard and was aware this was dead, then the next day on talkSPORT Alex Krassyuk.
Alex said to Jim, I want to thank Frank and Queensberry, this is not their fault, they are having their client, Tyson Fury, we have our client Usyk and we are here to supply the demands of our clients. Frank did everything possible to make the fight happen.”
It seems Usyk’s team walked away over the rematch purse split, in which they wanted 70/30 in favour of the winner of the first fight. It’s believed Fury’s side offered 50% to Usyk if he was victorious first time round, but Warren argues that there was never any time given to negotiate this.
Boxing fans are used to the big fights not getting made, but for one of such magnitude that seemed so close it’s an even harder pill to swallow than most.