With two bouts expected to take place in the next few months, the heavyweight division is currently in a state of confusion and commotion.
Last September, there was one match that all British boxing fans had been waiting for in great anticipation.
Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury were planning their best of British boxing bout before Fury was thrown with an already legally agreed upon a final match in the Fury v Wilder trilogy extravaganza.
Joshua was then set to face his WBO mandatory challenger, Oleksandr Usyk.
Fury was triumphant in his trilogy, while Joshua was not. The challenge appeared too much for Joshua and the all British bout was pushed back as the contractually-agreed rematch clause was immediately triggered by Joshua and his promoter, Eddie Hearn.
While Joshua prepares to take on his Ukrainian rival, Fury has not been set with the task of taking on a different British competition in Dillian Whyte.
However, despite all this apparent clarity, nothing was confirmed until today with no matches officially scheduled and the heavyweight landscape could still turn in any direction.
The WBC had set a deadline of 6 pm GMT on Wednesday 26 January 2022 for Fury and Whyte to make their final negotiations but a further 48 hours was given to freely negotiate before any purse bids are made.
This is now the fourth time the deadline has been pushed back.
Here is all you need to know about what is likely to happen and what a purse bid is…
What is a purse bid?
A purse bid would allow any promoter to enter the talks and finance the fight. Importantly, a purse bid would only be needed if fight terms cannot be agreed between the two camps.
Fury is promoted by Frank Warren, Queensbury, and Bob Arum, Top Rank while Dillian Whyte is promoted by Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn.
If the two sides can agree to a fight, there will be no need for the purse bids. If they cannot, the promoter who bids the highest will win, with that figure then divided by the purse split – determining the share each boxer will earn from the fight.
Why is Fury vs Whyte becoming so difficult to negotiate?
The main issue that seems to be causing the chaos is money. The WBC’s rules state that a mandatory challenger will be granted 45% of a purse split, though they can use their discretion to change that percentage.
In the case of Fury vs Whyte, Whyte appears to be granted only 20%.
Whyte has not been in a fight with the WBC just because of the split but he has also stated his unhappiness with how long it has taken him to receive a world title shot.
His promoter, Hearn, insisted that an 80/20 split was ridiculous, and while indicating a fight between the pair looks likely, he also insisted that Whyte would get a fair cut.
Would Fury fight Oleksandr Usyk?
It had been a possibility that Fury would fight Usyk if Anthony Joshua were to step aside. The Telegraph reported earlier this week that Joshua would be willing to accept a £15m step-aside which would allow Fury and Usyk to fight for the WBC, WBA, WBO, and IBF titles but Joshua has swiftly shut down these rumors.
Speaking on social media, Joshua said: “I’m hearing people say ‘AJ accepts £15m to step aside’. I haven’t signed a contract, I haven’t seen a contract. So as it stands, stop listening until it comes from me.
“I’m the man in control of my destiny.”
Another contributing factor is time. If Fury and Usyk were to fight each other, they would have to agree to the terms before the WBC call for purse bids in finalizing Fury vs Whyte.
As it looks now, Joshua and Usyk will fight in Spring while fans wait to hear what becomes of Fury vs Whyte.
Eddie Hearn has claimed that talks remain “agreed” for a rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua after step-aside talks collapsed.
However, the deal was made complicated with Dillian Whyte also involved in the tussle after being ordered as the mandatory challenger to Fury’s belt.
Hearn now expects a fight to take place between Joshua and Usyk and has blamed other people’s “desires” to make an undisputed clash for the prolonging of talks.
“That deal with AJ vs Usyk is very simple,” Hearn told Mirror Fighting. “The deal is already done, terms are all agreed, it is literally just a conversation to say ‘Oleksandr it is April the whatever at Wembley, see you there mate’.
“With those guys, it will be easy but it was people’s desire to try and come up with this other plan that prolonged everything. If that plan cannot be put in place we should all just move on.
“Joshua hasn’t signed any non-formal agreement to step aside, I am interested in looking to take the best opportunity for him to fight the winner of that fight to determine the best heavyweight in the world for a lot of money.
“We are very happy and AJ would prefer to face Usyk straight off the bat. But as everyone was getting in order Tyson Fury killed the deal anyway so he will now go and fight Dillian Whyte.”
Although, Hearn has also blamed Fury for the collapse of any offer branding him a “walking contradiction” after his furious social-media posts in the build-up to the decision.
“There were talks of these four fighters doing different things, but Fury didn’t really want to fight Usyk straight off the bat he wanted an interim fight,” Hearn continued.
“He [Fury] is the king of contradiction, one minute AJ is a coward for accepting step-aside then he is an idiot for not accepting $90million. Which one is it?
“But Dillian Whyte is more than happy to face Tyson Fury. AJ is more than happy to fight Usyk. People were pushing ideas to us that could have made sense but the wording was incorrect so we all need to now just move on.
“There are purse bids due to take place for Fury Whyte tomorrow (Friday) and I expect those to take place.”
