The undisputed heavyweight fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk set for April 29 has fallen through, according to the Ukrainian’s manager.
The Ukrainian’s manager and long-time advisor Egis Klimas revealed Wednesday March 22.
“No matter how much Usyk compromised, he was pushed for more,” Usyk’s manager, Egis Klimas, told boxing reporter Steve Kim, who first reported that talks had fallen apart.
The sides agreed on a 70-30 split in favor of Fury for the net revenue earlier this month, but Fury and Usyk couldn’t agree on other material terms critical to the deal beyond the split.
Usyk, a 35-year-old Ukrainian, has shut down his training camp, according to sources, and will regroup with his team to plot his next fight.
Usyk holds the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles and is ranked No. 2 by ESPN at heavyweight. Fury, the WBC champion, is ESPN’s No. 1 heavyweight.
Three mandatory challengers are waiting for their shot at Usyk, but England’s Daniel Dubois is up first in the rotation system used for boxing’s unified champions.
Last week, the Gypsy King insisted that the bout was definitely on and that he had entered a social media blackout during training for the fight.
But the Ukrainian’s manager and long-time advisor Klimas issued a firm take-it-or-leave-it declaration to Fury’s team, and that if the fight does not happen, Usyk will pivot to a mandatory defense of his WBA title against Daniel Dubois.
Klimas told SNAC: ‘If this fight is going to happen, only April 29th. Or it’s just going to be cancelled, and we’ll go with the mandatory.’