Bob Arum says the prospect of “really big money” from Saudi Arabia caused the collapse of talks between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk over a heavyweight unification clash in England in April.
Usyk, who holds the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight belts, accepted a demand from WBC champion Fury that the purse be divided 70-30 in the Briton’s favor, seemingly removing any obstacles to the matchup being made, but the deal ultimately fell apart amid bitter recriminations over the terms of a potential rematch. Each camp laid the blame squarely at the feet of the other, but Arum, Fury’s US promoter, doesn’t think either side is at fault.
“Well, nothing really went wrong,” he told Fight Hub TV. “I think what happened was the initial deal was easy to make but there was no urgency on either fighter because the Saudis were talking about putting up really big money to get the fight done in November, December. So, I think that it was hard to keep the fight together under those circumstances because the money they could make in Saudi, if it was real, was so many times more than what they would make for a big fight in the UK.”
Arum noted that, whereas Usyk might have commanded $15 million to fight Fury in England in April, the amount on offer from Saudi backers might have been more than three times that amount – but it was contingent on a new arena being built to host the fight, which will seemingly not be completed until later in the year.
“So, there’s no real impetus to get the deal done because everybody is looking at greener pastures,” he explained in the interview with Marcos Villegas.
“If there was no Saudi possibility, we would have made this fight in three days. But that was always the cloud hovering over the negotiations, and you can’t blame the fighters. You really can’t. The Saudis weren’t anxious to do the fight except in the winter because they’re building a stadium for the fight. So, you know, it is what it is. But I don’t fault either fighter.”
