Tyson Fury’s name is once again attached to a rumored undisputed championship showdown as a WBC mandatory title defense looms ahead.
For the second time in less than a year, rumors have swirled of a potential step aside fee being considered by at least one party standing in the way of crowning the first ever undisputed heavyweight champion in the four-belt era. Such a bout would require England’s Fury—the reigning WBC and lineal champion—and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk, who holds the WBA “Super”/IBF/WBO/IBO titles—to gain consent from their current linked opponents.
A report featured in The Telegraph in the United Kingdom on Sunday has former two-time unified heavyweight titlist Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22KOs) reportedly considering a £15,000,000 pound offer (more than $20,000,000 USD) to bypass an immediate rematch with Usyk (19-0, 13KOs). The misleading headline claims that Joshua has accepted such terms while the report itself claims that he is “close to accepting a £15 million step-aside fee that would pave the way for Oleksander Usky [sic] to fight Tyson Fury in an undisputed heavyweight title bout in the Middle East.”
The rumored figure has made the rounds for at least a week, with no such confirmation coming from Joshua himself beyond a prior admission in late November that “if the money is right, you have to look at it.”
No sources were mentioned in validating such claims, nor has there been any indication of Joshua planning to waver from his desire to avenge his previous loss to Usyk. Promoter Eddie Hearn is actively seeking a springtime date for the heavyweight title fight sequel.
Such claims come on the heels of the oft-postponed purse bid hearing to determine promotional rights for the WBC mandatory title consolidation fight between Fury (31-0-1, 22KOs) and interim heavyweight Dillian Whyte (28-2, 19KOs). The matter has been scheduled four times, currently due to take place January 26 absent a deal acceptable to all involved parties.
Fury was given 30 days from the time of his repeat win over former WBC titlist Deontay Wilder (42-2-1, 41KOs) in their epic trilogy clash last October 9 to either work out terms for an undisputed showdown with Usyk or begin negotiations with Whyte. The matter became moot when Joshua—who second title reign ended in a twelve-round, unanimous decision defeat to Usyk last September 25—triggered a rematch clause during that time frame.
The WBC initially tabled the matter along with a request from Top Rank—Fury’s co-promoter along with Queensberry Promotions—for an 80/20 pay distribution in Fury’s favor should the matter go to a purse bid. An ongoing legal dispute between Whyte and the WBC prompted the Mexico City-based sanctioning body to delay its ordering of the mandatory title fight until the matter was resolved.
Whyte is also seeking a more favorable split, with that item currently in arbitration and unresolved to the point of playing a role in three separate purse bid hearings as requested by both sides.
Even if Joshua were to accept any figure, it would have to be approved by the WBC and theoretically come with a compensation package acceptable to Whyte who still seeks his first major title fight. Sanctioning bodies rarely change course from an ordered title fight, as participants are not permitted to enter negotiations for any other contest during that period.
A similar development transpired last spring, when it was reported that Fury and Joshua reached terms for an all-British heavyweight championship clash with all of the belts at stake. The alleged agreement in place was accompanied by claims that Wilder was offered and would accept a lucrative step aside fee in lieu of his contractually guaranteed third fight with Fury.
The latter part turned out to be a flat out lie, with Wilder pouring water over such claims as he and his team went to arbitration to have the existing contract upheld. Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, Fury’s co-promoter and founder of Top Rank was also forced to publicly acknowledge the absence of any step aside offer made to secure a Fury-Joshua showdown.
Fury went on to knock out Wilder in the eleventh round of their oft-rescheduled trilogy clash last October 9. The bout was originally due to take place in July 2020—five months after Fury’s one-sided, seventh-round knockout of Wilder in their February 2020 rematch at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The July date was shut down due to the global pandemic, with efforts to reschedule in October and December 2020 similarly thwarted.
Upon Wilder’s arbitration win came the announcement of a planned third fight last July 24 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event was delayed by ten weeks after Fury tested positive for Covid amidst a virus breakout in his training camp.
Whyte has not fought since a fourth-round knockout of Alexander Povetkin in their interim title fight rematch last March 27 in Gibraltar. The bout came eight months after their first clash, where Povetkin recovered from two fourth-round knockdowns to flatten Whyte early in the fifth round of their August 2020 meet in Brentwood, Essex, England. Whyte won 11 straight leading into that fight, all coming after a seventh-round stoppage to Joshua in December 2015, one fight prior to Joshua’s second-round knockout of unbeaten IBF titlist Charles Martin.
Joshua went on to add the vacant WBA “Super” and IBO titles in an off-the-canvas, eleventh-round knockout of former lineal champion Wladimir Klitschko in April 2017. Less than a year later came a twelve-round win over Joseph Parker in their March 2018 WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO unification bout, defending those titles in a seventh-round knockout of Povetkin later that September before losing the belts to Andy Ruiz in a June 2019 seventh-round stoppage at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
A twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Ruiz in their December 2019 rematch saw Joshua bring the belts back home to England. Fury’s knockout win over Wilder in their February 2020 rematch marked the first time in the four (or more, counting the IBO) belt era that all of the major belts resided in England.
The two were never able to cross paths, with Joshua defending versus IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev in December 2020 before losing to Usyk, the WBO mandatory challenger at the time of their fight last September in London. Fury’s lone defense came in his repeat win over Wilder, and—for the moment—remains tied to a mandatory title consolidation fight with Whyte. For now, Fury and Whyte have until Wednesday to reach a deal, whether for a head-on collision or an agreement that allows both parties to go their separate ways for at least one fight.
Frank Warren, head of Queensberry Promotions and Fury’s co-promoter has previously revealed that he has March 26 reserved at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales for Fury’s next fight versus Whyte or in a non-title affair.
By Jake Donovan