Oleksandr Usyk’s promoter, Alex Krassyuk, has stated that Tyson Fury’s recent comments about Usyk turning down tens of millions of dollars for an undisputed fight are untrue.
Fury recently claimed that his potential opponent turned down $65 million to face him this month. The fight between the pair will see ‘The Gypsy King’s WBC belt pitted against Usyk’s WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles to crown an undisputed champion in the heavyweight division.
Whilst it was once expected that it may land in December, Usyk announced that he needed time to recover following his August victory over Anthony Joshua. It’s that, Krassyuk told Boxing Social, that caused the delay despite Fury’s hints that the Ukrainian didn’t want the fight.
“Commenting those figures on $65 million … this is bulls**t. The only reason why this fight was shifted from December to further [is] because the initial fight with Anthony Joshua for July 21st. And our plan was, when we were binding with the organisation in Saudi to stage two fights until the end of 2022, it was with the condition that the first fight takes place no later than July 21st.”
The rematch with Joshua ended up taking place on August 20 in Saudi Arabia. Usyk won again with an impressive performance, however it was another heavyweight twelve-rounder, and changed his return plans.
“So it was shifted for one month, and we had to shift the next fight for one month because Usyk has the plan for recovery and then coming back to training. If we shift it for one month, we end up in January which is not really best month for staging.
Krassyuk summarised by making it clear that Usyk has wanted to face Fury all along, and suggested that the hesitancy is perhaps coming from the other corner.
“So, that’s why we moved it for February. There’s no conspiracy behind it. It’s very simple. It’s very transparent, and Usyk never said a single word that he wants to avoid this fight, but we heard a lot of stuff from Tyson, trying to escape from it.”
Fury now faces Derek Chisora as he waits for the Usyk fight to be organised for 2023.
Despite the back and forth through the media, it’s understood that negotiations for the undisputed fight are going well behind the scenes, and fans can tentatively look forward to it landing in Saudi in late February or early March.