Tyson Fury has demanded a £500 million payday for a unification fight with Oleksandr Usyk and wants it arranging within the next week.
Usyk retained his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO belts after winning his rematch with Anthony Joshua on Saturday, while Fury, who retired after beating Dillian Whyte in April, holds the WBC belt.
Promoter Frank Warren has said that a bout with Fury is “the only fight” Usyk wants and Fury has given until September 1 for it to be arranged.
.@frankwarren_tv @trboxing @espn @WBCBoxing pic.twitter.com/wQHKjXgm7S
— TYSON FURY (@Tyson_Fury) August 24, 2022
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In an expletive-laden interview on TalkSPORT the 34-year-old, who claimed he was walking away from boxing less than a fortnight ago, said only “obscene money” would get him back in the ring.
“I have made it clear I have retired from boxing and I am very happy doing that, however, I will come back but it has to be for an obscene amount of money,” he said.
“Let’s face it, it is not Anthony Joshua, it is some foreigner who no one has ever heard of. If they want me to fight this unknown quantity and give him the chance to earn legendary status, then they have to pay for that.
😅 “I don’t respect Usyk… he couldn’t knock the skin off a rice pudding!”
👎 “I see [Anthony Joshua’s legacy] as in tatters at the moment! Tatters!”@Tyson_Fury gives us his response to the #UsykJoshua2 fight 🥊 pic.twitter.com/Ok2bFIMOrw— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) August 24, 2022
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“They have got a week. This fight is purely about money, I am happily retired. If they want the Gypsy King to fight they have to pay an obscene amount of money.
“The biggest fight in the world needs to be the biggest payday in the world. (Floyd) Mayweather got £400m for (Manny) Pacquiao, I want £500m for Usyk.
“I have no real interest in Usyk. No one even knows his name. A pumped up middleweight who beat AJ. It’s not my fault he battered AJ. That’s not my fault he beat him twice in a row. However, there has only ever been me.
“I can beat Usyk on a week’s training because he is a middleweight, I can put my fist straight through him. If the money is on the table I will fight Usyk and 50 men like him and I will lay waste to every one of them.
“I don’t think he’s a great fighter and I see more excitement in Morecambe on a Friday night than him.”
After the Ukrainian beat Joshua in Saudi Arabia at the weekend, Warren said: “The challenge is going to be meeting the financial expectations of both guys.
“It has to be much bigger than that (Usyk v Joshua II) because you’ve got two undisputed fighters and the first time the four belts have been on the line.
“It’s a unique situation and what adds to it is that they are both undefeated, which is quite unusual.”
If the fight did happen, the winner would become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999-2000, only the sixth of all time and the first of the four-belt era following the rise of the WBO.
