Anthony Joshua is reportedly ready to accept a staggering £15million pay-off to step aside and allow rival Tyson Fury to fight Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua was beaten by Usyk last September in their mega-fight at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but has an agreement for a rematch in his contact with the Ukrainian. Despite that, organizers in the Middle East are instead desperate to schedule a heavyweight unification bout between Fury and Usyk.
According to The Telegraph, Joshua is on the brink of accepting £15m to step aside for now and then fight the winner later this year. It would pave the way for a mega year of boxing with WBC champion Fury and IBF, WBA, and WBO belt-holder Usyk finally going head-to-head to unite the division. Dillian Whyte was also in line for a showdown with Fury but is believed to be close to accepting a fee in the region of £5m to stand aside. Sportsmail reported last week how Whyte could be in line to fight the last man standing at the end of 2022, after Joshua’s bout with the winner of Fury vs Usyk.
This comes a week after Fury’s UK promotor, Frank Warren hinted that a solution to sorting a heavyweight unification fight was in sight and that now appears to be the case. ‘It’s a saga but if we can keep things between us, we can get something over the line one way or another,’ Warren said at the time. ‘Everybody in boxing wants to see the undisputed fight between Tyson and Usyk, I want to see it just as a fan. So that is the fight we are trying to make.’
