Anthony Joshua wanted a further $5million to skip his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk, promoter Frank Warren has claimed.
Usyk would have faced Tyson Fury for the undisputed world heavyweight championship in the first bout for all the belts since 1999 had a deal been able to be struck.
But for the huge unification bout between Fury and Usyk to take place, both Joshua and Fury's mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte would have needed to be paid step aside money to forego their obligated title shots.
And Fury's promoter Warren has said that when Joshua asked for even more money in discussions over a deal to skip his contractually mandated rematch with Usyk, the WBC champion got sick of waiting.
“As far as Tyson was concerned, it dragged on," Warren told TalkSPORT's Fight Night show. “When Joshua asked for an extra $5million, he said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and that was it.
“He said, ‘I’m not interested, he’s too greedy,’ and that was enough, he’s a champion – Tyson’s not beholden to Anthony Joshua.
“Him and Usyk wanted to get it on, both of them wanted to get it on, but you had two people in the middle – one was suing the WBC and the other one was asking for more and more money.”
Fury will make £25m for his bout with Whyte after a record-breaking £31m purse bid on Friday night, as well as getting the opportunity for a UK homecoming fight.
It then appears that the winner of his fight, be it Fury or Whyte, will not be subject to a rematch clause, meaning there would be nothing in the way of a fight between them and the winner of Usyk vs Joshua 2.
But Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn believes that Fury didn't want to fight the Ukrainian, who has yet to lose at the professional level.
Hearn believes that had Fury wanted to face Usyk, the fight would have happened given the money on the table for the fight from the Middle East.
“The reality is Tyson Fury does not want to fight Oleksandr Usyk next for the undisputed championship," Hearn told TalkSPORT last week.
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"He wants to have an interim bout, and that’s what slowed things down.
“We couldn’t really understand – you’ve just beaten Deontay Wilder, this is the undisputed fight and then he wants the interim bout.
“Then last night, ‘No, I want to fight Dillian Whyte next.’
“So all the work that’s been going on behind the scenes – I haven’t been driving those talks, I’ve been mostly listening – it’s kind of crumbled away.
“Because Fury has decided, ‘No actually, I don’t want to fight Usyk for the undisputed, actually I want to fight Dillian Whyte.’
“We needed to come up with a path and plan that everyone was comfortable with and ultimately, not everyone was comfortable with it.”
Hearn made a bid of his own on behalf of Matchroom Boxing and DAZN, which despite coming it at significantly less than Warren's, would still have been record-breaking had it succeeded.
