Tyson Fury became ‘IMPATIENT’ in talks with Oleksandr Usyk as Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte’s step-aside demands made the deal ‘convoluted’, says promoter Bob Arum… who also insists scheduling an undisputed bout in the Middle East was too difficult
- Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk were recently negotiating a potential mega-fight
- But talks over an undisputed bout in the Middle East has since broken down
- Fury’s promoter Bob Arum says his fighter grew tired of the negotiations
- Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte’s step-aside demands were too tough to meet
- And staging a Middle-East fight in April was not possible due to Ramadan
Tyson Fury grew tired of negotiations for an undisputed clash with Oleksandr Usyk after a series of stumbling blocks made the deal ‘convoluted’, says the Gypsy King’s US promoter Bob Arum.
Fury and Usyk’s respective teams were recently in talks over a potential mega-fight after a country from the Middle East launched an offer to have them battle it out for heavyweight supremacy this summer.
However, with Fury ordered to defend his WBC title against mandatory opponent Dillian Whyte, and unified champion Usyk contractually obliged to rematch Anthony Joshua, the unnamed country would have been forced to pay the two challengers step-aside money for it to happen.
Tyson Fury grew tired of negotiating an undisputed clash with Oleksandr Usyk, says Bob Arum
Fury was in talks with Usyk over a potential heavyweight mega-fight in the Middle East
In the end Joshua and Whyte’s hefty financial demands and issues around the timing of an undisputed fight in the Middle East saw Fury vs Usyk collapse, meaning the former is now due to lock horns with Whyte.
Arum has revealed Fury simply lost patience with the Usyk negotiations, while insisting their proposed match-up was never going to materialise.
‘That was a whole deal that was so convoluted,’ the Top Rank chief told Fight Hype.
‘With all good intentions on their [the Middle Eastern country’s] part, it wasn’t going to happen.
‘Not only did they have to pay for the Usyk fight with Fury, they also had to pay step aside to Joshua which was a huge amount and step aside for two fights to Whyte.
Arum (centre) says a number of stumbling blocks meant Fury vs Usyk was never on the cards
One of the stumbling blocks was the step-aside demands of Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte
‘Then there was a whole problem with the television rights and it wasn’t going to come together.’
As well as failing to agree step-aside figures and television rights, Fury’s showdown with Usyk also proved difficult to schedule.
An April date became unfeasible in the Middle East given it is the Muslim month of Ramadan, where people must fast during the day, yet a proposed June date was too late for Fury, who is keen to return to the ring as quickly as possible after his last fight in October.
Arum added: ‘They couldn’t do the fight in April because of Ramadan so we were talking about, at best, doing the fight in June and Tyson just got impatient with the whole thing.’
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