Comments Thread For: Frank Warren on Fury-Usyk Talks: We're Still None the Wiser; Can't Force People to Fight

[Monty Fisto]

Fury had a huge crowd to see him fight Dillian Shyte of all people. And an Usyk fight would take place in England.

Its a no brainer that he is the A-side here and deserves more of the purse.

Usyk is a good fighter but on his own he doesn’t draw.

I don't believe anyone is proposing that Usyk gets in the ring to fight by himself.

The fight is for undisputed. It's a massive fight because it's undisputed and Usyk brings three of the four belts that make it undisputed. If the fight is going to proceed, Fury's team are going to have to negotiate in good faith, which means acknowledging that it's not all about Fury.

As someone else here suggested, 40/40 with 20% on top for the winner would be fair. Since Fury thinks he would destroy Usyk, he should view that as a 60/40 split. I'm sure team Usyk would go for it.

But judging from what Warren is saying here, someone doesn't even want to fight at all. I know which one I think it is.

[Daniel Skillman]

Somehow I fell in love with this sport without ever developing a rooting interest that such. Occasionally I'll cheer a fighter on in the moment, but by and large, I simply root for good fights. So, I don't have a dog in the hunt here.

Here's what I see. Fury isn't being guaranteed the money he thinks he's worth for the Usyk fight. So, he won't fight. End of story. He's a pro. There's no way he's scared. None of these guys truly get scared at this level. This is a *business decision.

And that sucks. Because once again, we're shown that this is the *business of boxing. It's not really a sport. It's the sports entertainment *business. I think the contests are legitimate. They're just not the main thing. The main thing is money. If it makes money, it makes sense to the powers that be in boxing. It's not about rankings or championships or sport as that term is traditionally understood. It's about money. Period.

As a fan of the *sport, that's disappointing. In the extreme sometimes. We often don't get the matchups we deserve as fans, and when we do, they're frequently past their best-by date.

I don't want to be all bleak. There are still fun fights on the calendar. There are gutty warriors who give it their all in the ring, and will seemingly fight anyone.

But let's not kid ourselves. Professional boxing isn't really a sport. It's the sports business, with an emphasis on the business.

I'm all for seeing that changed. But I don't think for a minute that it will be.

So, we're going to continue to have years when Jake Paul has one of the most successful PPV events of the year because he's got a massive following from other endeavors, and like it or not, given his skill level, he *challenges himself every fight out. When Jake fights the likes of Tommy Fury, most people in the know understand that we're watching two novices. But when that match up is relatively even, and it's backed up by a massive YouTube fan base, you're gonna see numbers. And where your see numbers, you can bet you're going to see imitators.

What is this sport when the Heavyweight Champion of the world won't defend against the obvious number 1 contender? Well, it's not a sport. It's a financial endeavor. It's an investment enterprise wherein the fighter is incentivized to avoid the stiffest competition in favor of that which will pull the most money. And if Fury can make enough fighting 2nd tier opposition this time out, I suppose he will.

Personally, if he doesn't fight Usyk next, I'd be willing to watch him fight Joshua, Joyce, or even Wilder again. This isn't as egregious of a duck as Crawford v Spence. Not yet. But if he gets out of 2023 without unifying, then it'll be hard to defend him.

[Roberto Vasquez]

Tyson Fury - pulled out of 2 Joshua fights and now people think he is going to fight Usyk... The guy has fought TWO top-10 boxers in 7 years. How many top-10 boxers has Usyk fought in the last 7 years?

Usyk has never run from a fight - we all know Tyson is scared here.

[Lxg]

What is hilarious and so off point is that many Fury advocates claim Fury is the big draw in the UK, so he should get the 60:40 split guaranteed. Folks, the money made at the live gate is paltry compared to the pay-per-view money. No one in the U.S. gives a damn about Tyson Fury, old fat Chisora, slow moving Dillian Whyte or Fury fighting an MMA fighter who has never been in a boxing ring. None of those matches will sell pay-per-view. So UK fans can sing Neil Diamond songs all they want at the stadium, but no one will care about Fury fighting Joe (who?) Joyce or a fourth fight between Fury and Wilder. Fury already knocked Wilder twice. Knocking him out again is meaningless. Fury is just plain frightened of Usyk. Fury refused a lot of money from the Saudis while Usyk said yes. Fury’s bombastic statements were just empty bravado. In the end, where the event is makes no difference. It’s the pay-per-view that counts and Usyk Vs Fury is the only big fight.

[theface07]

It's an easy solution.... 40-40 split put the remaining 20 percent in the pot and winner takes it.

I think that's a good idea but Usyk's team already proposed a 60/40 split in Fury's favor and he rejected it. Either he's greedy as hell or he's not confident he will win and is pricing himself out. Personally I think Fury is trying to offer Usyk such a low percentage of the purse that he can say Usyk is scared and ducking because he won't take 30%. Fury is a right knob.

[Get em up]

I think that's a good idea but Usyk's team already proposed a 60/40 split in Fury's favor and he rejected it. Either he's greedy as hell or he's not confident he will win and is pricing himself out. Personally I think Fury is trying to offer Usyk such a low percentage of the purse that he can say Usyk is scared and ducking because he won't take 30%. Fury is a right knob.

I didnt know 60-40 had been proposed. Last I heard Usyk's team said 50-50 or no dice.

[ShoulderRoll]

What is hilarious and so off point is that many Fury advocates claim Fury is the big draw in the UK, so he should get the 60:40 split guaranteed. Folks, the money made at the live gate is paltry compared to the pay-per-view money. No one in the U.S. gives a damn about Tyson Fury, old fat Chisora, slow moving Dillian Whyte or Fury fighting an MMA fighter who has never been in a boxing ring. None of those matches will sell pay-per-view. So UK fans can sing Neil Diamond songs all they want at the stadium, but no one will care about Fury fighting Joe (who?) Joyce or a fourth fight between Fury and Wilder. Fury already knocked Wilder twice. Knocking him out again is meaningless. Fury is just plain frightened of Usyk. Fury refused a lot of money from the Saudis while Usyk said yes. Fury’s bombastic statements were just empty bravado. In the end, where the event is makes no difference. It’s the pay-per-view that counts and Usyk Vs Fury is the only big fight.

People in the US give more of a damn about Fury than they do about Usyk, that’s for sure. They are very familiar with him now after seeing a great trilogy with Deontay Wilder.

Fury is the A-side when it comes to the US and the UK. There is no question about that.

[juggernaut666]

People in the US give more of a damn about Fury than they do about Usyk, that’s for sure. They are very familiar with him now after seeing a great trilogy with Deontay Wilder.

Fury is the A-side when it comes to the US and the UK. There is no question about that.

What fight suggests that Fury will do better numbers as a stand alone attraction in both countries ? Because if we actually do the numbers, Usyk did better . Lol

[BodyBagz]

Yeah

Never gonna happen though, you’re only obliged to face your mandatory.

does any other sport work like boxing? just really fragmented and essentially a load of independent businesses trying to do deals with each other.

I’m sure we would all just prefer one belt per division, but how is that ever going to happen because it would basically be asking three or more businesses to stop operating.

Obviously mixed martial arts has a lot of different companies, but you become contracted to a company when you want to fight there and there’s only one belt. In my opinion, that’s a much better format than boxing because you know if you want the most money, you pretty much have to go to the UFC and if you want to be the biggest earner, you’re gonna have to win titles and there’s only one.

Boxing is a mess and unfixable at this point. Still, you can only really blame the fighters because if they want to fight. they will…but the issue is it’s not really necessary that they fight who the public want them to fight because they still get to keep hold of belts and people will still watch them fight. So they don’t bother.

we’ve seen it with Spence and Crawford, now Fury v Usyk.

It’s a good job some really good fights come along now and again, otherwise I think I’d lose a lot of interest in my favourite sport. We spend more time talking about business and fights not happening than the actual entertainment and fighting.

If a boxer is not forced to fight the best, I really can't blame said boxer for taking the easiest road.
If that boxer opens his shlthole about being the best, yet have the shlttiest resumes, that cvnt needs to back it up in the ring.

Boxing is one of the oldest ''sports'' ever, yet it's so far behind in other more legit sports

[ShoulderRoll]

What fight suggests that Fury will do better numbers as a stand alone attraction in both countries ? Because if we actually do the numbers, Usyk did better . Lol

Tyson Fury just drew 94,000 fans to Wembley to watch him fight Dillian Whyte. A fight that Whyte did absolutely no promotion for. Lol.

And after the awesome Wilder trilogy there is no question that Fury’s name recognition in the US has skyrocketed way beyond Usyk’s.