John Fury, father of WBC champion, Tyson, is adamant that Oleksandr Usyk’s scheduled fight against Daniel Dubois will not be happening.
Usyk had looked set to face Fury earlier this year in a fight to crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis. However, after drawn out negotiations the Ukrainian’s team eventually pulled the plug claiming they weren’t getting a fair deal.
After the talks collapsed the unified champion turned his attention to his mandatory obligations, with WBA regular champion, Dubois, first in line for a shot at the belts.
After a period of failed talks the fight went to purse bids and was won by Usyk’s promotional team, K2, for just over $8million. They immediately announced their plans to host the fight in Poland on August 26.
However, speaking to iFL TV about clash, the head of the Fury family is insistent that Usyk won’t risk getting a fight against Dubois and will pull out and wait for a ‘mega’ payday against Tyson.
“He could have fought Tyson and made £12-15million and all of a sudden where is he? It’s ridiculous, he won’t even get £6million for fighting Dubois.
I’ll tell you now, if he fights Dubois I’ll eat hay with a donkey. That fight isn’t happening and I’ll tell you why – the only fight Usyk wants is Tyson, but you know what he wants? Mega, mega money – a bumper payday because he knows when he meets ‘The Gypsy King’ it’s over for him.
He’s ready for retirement anyway. He’ll definitely pull out of the Dubois fight, that’s my opinion and I said it first. It doesn’t make sense, he’s turned down all that money to fight Tyson.”
As for ‘The Gypsy King’, he is still searching for a September opponent after being linked to most fighters in the division.