It’s funny how a boxing fight can go from being on the brink of collapse to the brink of being made official in such fast and dramatic fashion. Earlier today reports surfaced that a much discussed heavyweight title unification between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk was on the verge of collapsing over Fury’s considerable financial demands.
Soon thereafter there would be a 5 p.m. ET deadline set by the WBA for Fury and and Usyk to reach terms, otherwise they were going to order Usyk to face Daniel Dubois instead.
Fury would take to social media to ridicule Usyk, telling him he was only deserving of 30% and that he would be offered less each passing day, only for Usyk to quickly respond by publicly accepting the offer with the stipulation that Fury makes a donation to the people of Ukraine.
Fury would get back on his social media page to call Usyk a bunch of expletives and telling him to get his ass ready to fight, and now ESPN reports that representatives from both sides have now informed the WBA that have reached a tentative agreement for the fight to take place, which the sanctioning body has acknowledged.
This news scuttles the need for the WBA’s order with Dubois — at least for the moment, anyway — and for now the seesaw negotiations have bounced back in the other direction.