Tyson Fury has claimed Oleksandr Usyk was due to make £13million to fight for undisputed heavyweight gold at Wembley Stadium on the pair's doomed April date.
This year, the pair had seemingly agreed to a set of terms for the first undisputed heavyweight title bout of the four-belt era earlier this year, with April 29 the touted day it would take place. However, they couldn't come to grips with a rematch clause, and opted not to make the event happen.
Terms for the bout were heavily favoured towards Fury, with the argument being from the Brit that his team were hosting the bout, and that he is far and away the bigger star of the two, despite only holding one belt to Usyk's three. And he has now mocked his rival for taking just £6m to face Daniel Dubois in a mandatory challenge for his WBA title.
"Usyk v Dubois winning purse bid - $8m (3 belts on the line) Fury v Whyte winning purse bid - $42m (1 belt on the line)," wrote Queensberry Promotions Content Lead and Presenter Dev Sahni on Twitter, in a message that Fury replied to via an Instagram story later in the day.
"If ever there was a demonstration into the value of the belts in a negotiation with a superstar, it’s here. It’s about how much of a draw you are. A 70-30 split of a pot for a fight in the UK between Fury and Usyk was actually a little generous to Usyk if you really look at it."
Fury's response was typical of the abrasive heavyweight champion, taking aim at Usyk in a story post where he claimed that the Ukrainian was due to make £13m for their meeting. "Fact is he is a b**** a** p**** boy," he wrote. "Ran from £13million and now taking $6million [around £4.8million]. Joker.”
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At a 70-30 split, Fury would then be claiming that he was due to earn over £30m for his part in the bout. And while that is an impressive figure, it would still have amounted to a pay cut from the amount that either man would have expected for a bout in Saudi Arabia, which had been touted for some point this year.
Ultimately, it was confusion over the rematch clause that cost both teams the fight. Both men had publicly agreed to drop the clause altogether after Fury demanded it, but that didn't end up working out in actuality as the pair's teams went to work on a deal that would have seen the terms flipped if Usyk won and another bout were to take place.
"I convinced Tyson to take the rematch [with Usyk] and he did," promoter Frank Warren told TalkSPORT at the time. "So I told them on Sunday we’re going to go with the rematch. Then we got into a situation with how the rematch money is gonna be split and that’s what we’ve been working on… Why can’t it be overcome if he wants the fight? We want the fight. Why can’t it be overcome? There’s no reason for this fight to be off."
