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Nigerian-born former world heavyweight boxing champion, Anthony Olaseni Oluwafemi Joshua has stirred fresh controversy, following reports that he demanded to be paid $5m in order to step aside for Tyson Fury to fight Oleksandr Usyk.
Megasportsarena.com reports that Joshua is scheduled to take on Usyk in a bid to reclaim the belts he lost to the Ukrainian pugilist last September, but Fury, who still holds the World Boxing Council (WBC) belt, wants a unification bout instead.
Fury’s dream would only come true if Joshua agrees to ditch his bid for a second quick attempt to win his belts back and become three-time champion of the world, but he is reportedly demanding $5m to step aside.
This development was confirmed by ace boxing promoter, Frank Warren, who disclosed that Fury labelled Joshua “greedy” after negotiations for him to step aside broke down.
Warren further disclosed that Joshua asked for an additional $5m on top of the multi-million offer already on the table.
Conversely, Warren won the highest successful purse bid in boxing history on Friday evening, with a deal for Fury against Dillian Whyte, after his £31m ($41,025,000) bid beat Matchroom Boxing’s £24m ($32,222,222).
Whyte will now challenge for a world title for the first time in his career against the undefeated Fury, who emerged with two sensational wins from a historic trilogy with Deontay Wilder, while ‘AJ’ gets his rematch with Usyk for the IBF, WBA and WBO titles.
Fury posted an Instagram story shortly after the announcement hinting that the fight against Whyte will take place in the UK, the words “BIG GK IS COMING HOME, UK BABY” accompany the lyrics to the song ‘Three Lions.’
Whyte has long been the WBC’s No 1 ranked contender but was officially named as the mandatory challenger to Fury’s belt after ‘The Gypsy King’ beat Wilder for the second time.
The WBC ordered them into negotiations, ruling that Fury should keep 80 per cent of the total earnings – but Whyte was also in arbitration with the governing body.
The deadline for a private agreement between Fury and Whyte – before ‘purse bids’ enabled any promoter to enter the negotiations and finance the fight – had been pushed back four times.
Friday January 28 at 6pm was the final cut-off point but a private arrangement was not found and Warren, who promotes Fury in the UK, won the purse bid with an offer of $41m – the largest in boxing history.
It had previously been an option that Fury and Usyk would fight next to decide the undisputed heavyweight champion, but that option is now off the table.
Joshua qucikly triggered a rematch clause after losing his titles to Usyk last year, and is currently seeking to revamp his training set-up ahead of an expected second fight.
Fury fired in his usual verbose manner: “I can’t wait to punch Whyte’s face in. I’ll give him the best hiding he’s ever had. Whyte, train hard! Because you are getting annihilated.”
Vitali Klitschko said: “Everyone expects the rematch between Usyk and Joshua. Usyk is so strong or did Joshua make mistakes? Who is stronger?
“That question interests every boxing fan. Let’s receive an answer. That’s why this fight must happen.
“Huge fight. Right now, everybody doubts if Joshua is strong enough to fight Fury. He can give the answer in the Usyk fight.
“If Joshua beats Usyk there will be huge interest [in Joshua vs Fury]. It will be the main fight of the past 10 years.
“Joshua is a classic boxer, Fury is unorthodox. Both are punchers, both can decide the fight at any moment. Both are world-class fighters and can knock each other out at any second.”
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