The WBA Championships Committee ordered negotiations to begin between WBA/WBO/IBF heavyweight champion Oleksander Usyk (pictured) and WBA regular champion Daniel Dubois. (The WBA recognizes Usyk as a "super champion"). The official communication was sent to the parties on Monday. The teams of both fighters will have 30 days to negotiate, which will start on April 4 and will end on May 2nd. The fight between Usyk and Dubois had been ordered since last December 12th, but in the process, a period of time was granted for Usyk to negotiate a unification fight with WBC champion Tyson Fury;. However, that fight could not be agreed due to differences between the teams and now the WBA has ordered Usyk to defend vs. Dubois. There is a health concern because Dubois suffered a knee injury in his most recent bout last December 3rd against Kevin Larena. Despite winning, he came out of the fight hurt and having difficulty walking. The WBA sent a request for a health report to Dubois and his team, which was received on Thursday, March 30th. The report, signed by London-based physician James Witthicase, says Dubois is ready to do any physical activity, run, carry weight and feels no pain in his knee. If an agreement for Usyk-Dubois is not reached by May 2 or either side refuses to negotiate, the WBA could send the fight to auction with a split of 75% for Usyk and 25% for Dubois.

 

MARCH 13, 2023: After three-belt heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk agreed to take just 30% of the fight revenue in order to get a world unification fight signed with Tyson Fury, the WBC champion added a new condition to the deal: no rematch clause. Fury said this in an IFL-posted video: "Hi, Tyson Fury here… just a quick one. I've been speaking to the lawyers today. Usyk’s people are talking about rematch clauses and all that bollocks. Here's one to up the ante. How about there is no f----n rematch clause for both of us? Let's up the ante completely-- never worry about what's in the future and how many more dollars you can get after you've been defeated. Worry about the fight April 29th. No rematch clause, the winner takes the glory, the loser goes home with his d--k in his hand. How about that? Agree to that, you f----n bitch."

Fury's latest condition came a couple of days after Usyk said in an IFL video that he would take the short end of a purse split to unify the world heavyweight championship: "I accept your offer. 70/30 split. We'll do it April 29th in Wembley (London). But you will promise to donate to the Ukraine one million pounds immediately after the fight... and every day, if you delay, you will pay one percent from your purse to the Ukrainian people... Deal!"

Earlier in the day, negotiations for the proposed world heavyweight unification bout between three-belt champion Usyk and the more popular WBC champion Fury went public, with Fury disclosing his negotiating stance in an IFL-posted video. Fury said: "I see all this talk of boxing fights they want 50 percent, Usyk’s all this and Tyson's being greedy. But where I'm standing, Usyk, you and your team are worth 30 percent. You either take it or you leave it. And if you don't want it, go fight [WBA interim champion] Daniel Dubois at the Copper Box and get a few million dollars. [But if] you want to make some real money, come and fight the Gypsy King. But I will say, for every day from today that you linger or mess around, I'm going toa deduct one percent from the 30 percent, so every day, I'm going to deduct one percent until you take it. And if you don't take it, fight Dubois for two million dollars, not a problem. But how in the world could youse ever offer me a deal? Not possible… tick tock, tick tock."