After nearly three months of deals in private, the Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte WBC heavyweight title fight was finally announced last Friday.
That is the simple story behind a complex deal.
It was a brutal process according to Frank Warren, the British promoter of Fury. Warren had to bid $41m (£30m) to secure the rights to promote the fight.
Eddie Hearn, who had promoted Whyte, 33, previously, bid $32m (£24m); it was the only other bid.
It was very dramatic in the end and the bidding process finished an intense three-week period of claims, counter-claims, inventions, fake stories and lies. The boxing business loves a bit of intrigue.
However, there is still a dispute between the WBC, who are based in Mexico City, and Whyte about the percentage Whyte will receive as their long-standing mandatory challenger.
The WBC set the figure at 20 per cent; Whyte and his people were thinking that 45 per cent would have been fairer. An arbitration hearing is pending, but Whyte could walk away with just under $12m (£9m) if he wins the fight. If he loses, it will be over $7m (£5m).
It’s a massive potential payday for Whyte; Fury could make in excess of $35m (£26m). These are vast sums of money in any of boxing’s golden ages and allowing for any manipulation of inflation rates.
According to the WBC, the winner is entitled to the full 10 per cent deposit made by the company behind the winning bid. So, that’s $4.1m (£3m); Whyte is then guaranteed 20 per cent of the 90 per cent that is left.
Warren confirmed that a date will be announced early next week and that the fight will be in Britain. “He’s coming home,” Warren insisted. Fury, 33, last fought in Britain in the summer of 2018.
Fury is known to be ecstatic at the deal.
At 6pm last Friday in the offices of the WBC in Mexico City, the monumental purse bids were revealed; they were not finalised until about 5.30pm that same day when another of Whyte’s advisors, Ben Shalom, got involved. Shalom has an exclusive deal with Sky to promote boxing and is Whyte’s friend. The fight will, however, be live and exclusive on BT Sport Box Office when it does take place.
At about 5.30pm last Friday, as the latest deadline for the fifth and final deadline fast approached, all the efforts to make Fury against the Ukrainian, Oleksandr Usyk, had been exhausted. Usyk holds the three other world championship belts, but a unification with Fury vanished as the clock ticked down.
Usyk insists that he was prepared to fight Fury, prepared to put aside his contractual obligation to fight Anthony Joshua in a rematch of their fight from last September. Joshua was, meanwhile, still considering an offer to step-aside, which is a process where he would be paid a substantial figure for not fighting. It was a fluid situation for days, probably weeks, and then it was no longer fluid. Less than three days before the deadline, Joshua insisted that he had still not seen a contract for a step-aside proposal.
Usyk was also reported to have an injury, which would have kept him out of the ring until May or June; this would have meant Fury fought in March in a fight to keep him busy and shake off any signs of ring rust. That would have made sense, which is rare in the old game.
Whyte, incidentally, never said a word during the long, long process.
Still, it is boxing, there is a lot of money on the line, a lot of egos involved and a lot of reputations under scrutiny, so it is no surprise that blame and accusations have been flying about since the purse bid was made public.
Joshua stands accused of asking for too much money to step aside, Usyk stands accused of not wanting to fight Fury and Fury stands accused of not wanting to fight Usyk next. The truth and lies in the boxing game operate on the same tiny, fine line of decency. Now, it really doesn’t matter – a fight is on, a very big fight is on. News on the Joshua and Usyk fight will arrive shortly, no doubt.
Fury against Whyte is a terrific fight. Whyte might just be the wrong type of opponent for Fury and Fury, right now, might just be too clever and spiteful for Whyte. Fury can be pushed and more importantly, he can have off nights; Whyte can be knocked out. It is a fight of outrageous fortune and it is far harder to predict than many people believe.
The months of dealing are over, now we wait for that April date.
