"Where I'm standing, Usyk," lineal and WBC heavyweight titlist Tyson Fury says directly to IBF, WBA, and WBO heavyweight titlist Oleksandr Usyk in a Friday video, "you and your team are worth thirty percent. You either take it or you leave it." Fury's comments are the latest development in a negotiation for an undisputed heavyweight championship fight between himself and Usyk that that has gone on far too long.
"And if you don't want it," Fury continues, "go and fight Daniel Dubois at the Copper Box and get a few million dollars. You want to make some real money? Come and fight the Gypsy King." The undefeated Fury then goes on to present Usyk with an ultimatum. "But I will say," Fury states, "for every day from today that you linger, mess around, I'm going to deduct one percent from the thirty percent, so every day I'm going to deduct one percent until you take it.
Fury then wraps his message up in classic Tyson Fury style. "And if you don't take it," he concludes, "fight Dubois for two million dollars. Not a problem. But how in the world could yuze have offered me a deal? Not possible. Tick tock, tick tock. Pussies."
As author Kurt Vonnegut would say: "And so it goes."
"Even if Usyk would get zero for the fight, it would still not be sufficient for Tyson," Sky Sports quotes Usyk representative Alex Krassyuk as saying. "Normally when a fighter doesn't want to fight, he asks for something impossible, and then it's not happening. That's according to my experience. I've been in boxing for almost 20 years and that's what I've seen so many times."
Sure enough, there are those on social media who are now arguing that Fury isn't interested in fighting Usyk. This seems rather strange, though one never knows. Fury is bigger than Usyk, after all, and is a very strong and skilled combatant in the ring. Then again, perhaps he "sees something"(as Max Schmeling would have put it) that has him uneasy. Either way, it would be a true travesty for the sport if Fury and Usyk don't meet in the ring for all the figurative marbles. Fight fans deserve it, and so do the fighters themselves. Here's hoping another Spence-Crawford style disaster isn't afoot.