Tyson Fury went “berserk” after a late request for extra money from Anthony Joshua caused the collapse of the deal that would have seen Joshua step aside to allow Fury to take on Oleksandr Usyk, promoter Frank Warren has revealed.
A deal was thought to have been close last week, with Fury and Usyk set to meet in Saudi Arabia after Joshua withdrew his request for a rematch with the Ukrainian.
But the talks broke down, and Fury will now fight Dillian Whyte as planned after purse bids belatedly went ahead on Friday.
Fury’s co-promoter Warren won the bidding, and has now revealed that a late request for an extra £3.7 million from Joshua caused the step-aside deal to fall apart - leaving the WBC heavyweight champion furious.
“Tyson’s a big man, he can speak for himself. He don’t need me to tell you,” Warren nonetheless told iFL TV.
“But that’s what it was. I got a call off him [and] he was going berserk saying, ‘No, forget about it!’
“What stopped this fight from happening, this deal from happening, was at the last minute was AJ came in and asked for another $5m.
“And Tyson said, ‘Enough is enough. I don’t want to hear anything, I don’t want to talk about it anymore’.
“Everybody worked hard to get it where it was, but when he asked for that extra money; it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
The encounter between Fury and Whyte appears likely to take place in the United Kingdom, with a date of 23 April supposedly due to be announced soon.
