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12th March 2023
10:47am GMT
Frank Warren has confirmed that Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk is back on, with plans in their final stages for the fight to take place at Wembley on April 29.
The two heavyweights have been involved in negotiations and an online war of words for several months now, ever since Fury retained his WBC belt by beating Derek Chisora in December last year.
A fight with Usyk, who defended his WBA, WBO and IBF championship belts by beating Anthony Joshua last August, would see the winner unify the heavyweight division for the first time in history.
But negotiations between the two camps had seemingly stalled in recent days, and as the WBA's 10pm deadline approached on Friday, it looked like Usyk would be ordered to fight Daniel Dubois, his mandatory challenger. The Ukrainian's promoter went himself admitted at the time that he thought a fight between the pair was "unlikely to happen next."
The biggest obstacle seemed to be the purse split, with Usyk reportedly agreeing a 70/30, in Fury’s favour, following a series of social media exchanges.
An deal was struck at the 11th hour though, and suddenly it seems like the boxing world will finally be treated to an undisputed heavyweight fight.
Fury's promoter Frank Warren has now given a further update on proceedings - and it looks like we're finally going to see Fury and Usyk face off in the ring, as Warren confirmed a purse split has been agreed between the fighters.
Speaking to talkSPORT's Fight Night, he said: "It’s on. Subject to the contracts being sorted out, everyone is on the same page. We just have to keep moving it along and I’m sure it will happens.”
Warren also confirmed that both men have agreed the purse split, but did not reveal what that was.
When asked if it would still be going ahead on April 29, Warren said: “That would be the date for the fight. At one stage I wasn’t sure if Tyson would be fit for it, but he’s okay.
“The bottom line is they have both come out and said what they want to do and obviously we have to get the contracts signed. Everybody is working on that to get everything finalised.”
The Gypsy King has been on the receiving end of plenty of criticism for his purse demands, but Warren believes his man deserves a lot of credit for getting the fight on.
He continued: “Everyone wants to see the fight. Everybody should take their hat off to Tyson Fury because he’s the only heavyweight since going back to those great glory days of Ali, Foreman and Frazier that has fought the best around of the generations he’s been in.
“He’s fought against Klitschko, who was the best of his generation, went to his back yard and beat him.
“The longest reigning heavyweight in Deontay Wilder – went to the states not once but three times and beat him.
“Now he’s stepping up to the guy who has had two wins over Joshua and has three belts.
“You have to take your hat off to Tyson, we talk about Lennox Lewis, but he never fought Riddick Bowe, never fought Mike Tyson until he was well past his best.
“I’m not taking anything away from Lennox he was a great fighter. Tyson has fought all these guys at their best.”
He added: “Once we get it all finalised… it’s great. It’s the first time four belts have been on the line. It’s the biggest heavyweight fight in goodness knows how many years.
“Both are undefeated and both in their prime. It will be a fantastic event and the highest grossing event ever to take place at Wembley, beating the previous one.
“I’m not talking about about boxing but a one-off event. The previous one was last April again with Tyson.
“He’s a megastar and I’m delighted for him.
“People should acknowledge in him we’ve got a fighter who doesn’t duck anybody.”
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