Oleksandr Usyk has accused Tyson Fury of sabotaging their undisputed title fight by playing "mind games".
Usyk and Fury had been negotiating a heavyweight title clash which was set for April 29 at Wembley Stadium. It appeared talks had finally made a breakthrough before the 'Gypsy King' made a series of public demands including a 70/30 split in his favour that the Ukrainian initially accepted.
However after also demanding Usyk received no rematch clause, talks collapsed behind closed doors and both men have now missed out on the chance to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999. Fury initially broke his silence and heaped the blame on his rival in a vicious video rant just days after the fight fell off.
However Usyk has hit out at the WBC champion claiming that he is trying to copy heavyweight legend Muhammad Ali. He said in an interview with Volodymyr Kobelkov: "I see that nothing is going on, he is trying to play us, and I said, 'That's all, bye'. "He says, '70/30, I am the king. It's all thanks to me.' I don't respond to that. I understand that this is a mental game.
"The king is the king. And the king does not need to shout that he is the king. "He is trying very hard to copy the great Muhammad Ali. But the copy is very bad. It will probably now be Daniel Dubois at the end of the summer. I will go to Britain, I love it very much. "My first big achievements were in Britain. Then Anthony Joshua. I like this place, I like the fans, the people."
Usyk will now be ordered to face Daniel Dubois with his team again required to negotiate with Fury's promoter Frank Warren for the WBA mandatory defence. It remains unclear if an undisputed fight can be revived once he has completed his mandated showdown, but for now it appears dead in the water.
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Despite both fighters appearing to heap the blame on each other, Fury's dad John appears to have placed the buck on the promoters from both heavyweight's teams. "I just think in my own mind that he thought Tyson didn't want to fight him which is absolutely ridiculous," he said. "It is not the fighters, it is the promoters and the people who put these fights together.
"They make it complicated and they are thinking about what they can get out of it. They want as much money as they can make, so that is why the fights don't take place. Money speaks all languages, I think there has been a bit of greed coming from promoters. Especially Usyk's lot, because to pull out over a rematch clause and I know the truth over that."
