Oleksandr Usyk has called Tyson Fury's bluff and accepted his outrageous offer for their undisputed fight.
Usyk and Fury have been negotiating for months since Fury retained his heavyweight world title by stopping Derek Chisora last December. The rivals had initially hoped to meet in Saudi Arabia but a deal could not be made with the Middle Eastern state.
A date of April 29 was pencilled in with Wembley set to play host, but Fury was repeatedly accused of demanding too much money. He released a video on Friday to say he would accept the fight if he was paid a seemingly unrealistic 70 per cent of their multi-million-pound purse.
Usyk as now surprisingly accepted the offer as long as Fury donates £1million to the war-torn country of Ukraine after the fight. "Greedy belly, I accept your offer," Usyk said in a video posted online. "70/30 split the fight with you on April 29 at Wembley, but you will promise to donate to Ukraine immediately after the fight £1million and every day of delay you will pay one per cent of your purse to the Ukrainian people. Deal?"
Fury had earlier taken to social media to speak out for the first time about the negotiations. He said: "I see all this talk of boxing fights, they want 50 per cent, Tyson is being greedy... but from where I'm standing, Usyk, you and your team are worth 30 per cent. Either take it or you leave it and if you don't want it, go and fight Daniel Dubois at the Copper Box and get a few million dollars.
"If you want real money come and fight the Gypsy King, but what I will say, for every day from today that you linger and mess around, I'm going to deduct one per cent from the 30 per cent and if you dont' take it, fight Dubois for $2million. Tick tock, tick tock..."
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If a deal cannot be reached between Fury and Usyk, the Ukrainian will be forced to fight Daniel Dubois who holds the 'regular' version of the WBA belt won by Usyk from Anthony Joshua. The organisation tweeted earlier on Friday: "The Championships Committee had ordered Usyk-Dubois but this was vacated to give priority to Usyk-Fury. The deadline expired last Friday and an extension was granted until today at 5pm. Therefore, at the end of this period, the combat between Usyk and Dubois will be ordered."
Fury, meanwhile, would be required to defend his belt against a fighter ranked in the top 15 by the WBC. A collapse in talks with Usyk could also open to the door to negotiations with bitter rival Anthony Joshua, should he defeat Jermaine Franklin next month.
