‘Everybody should take their hat off to him’ – Tyson Fury compared to three heavyweight legends for fighting Usyk

TYSON FURY has been compared to heavyweight legends of the past for agreeing to fight Oleksandr Usyk.

The historic title unification faced collapse as the pair of unbeaten champions failed to agree a financial split.

GettyTyson Fury is set to fight Oleksandr Usyk next[/caption]

That was until Fury spoke out to offer Usyk a greedy “take-it-or-leave it” deal of 70/30 in his favour.

But Usyk refused to buckle and accepted the low-ball terms – so long as Fury agrees to make a donation of £1million to Ukraine.

Promoter Frank Warren CONFIRMED a deal is nearing completion to secure the division’s first four-belt undisputed fight on April 29 at Wembley.

And he claimed it is Fury who fans should thank as he continues to tick off the best of his heavyweight era.

Warren said on talkSPORT: “Everyone wants to see the fight.

“Everybody should take their hat off to Tyson Fury because he’s the only heavyweight since those great glory days of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Joe Frazier that has fought the best around of the generations he’s been in.

“He’s fought against Wladimir Klitschko, who was the best of his generation, went to his back yard and beat him.

“The longest reigning heavyweight in Deontay Wilder… [Fury] went to the States not once but three times and beat him.

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“Now he’s stepping up to the guy who has had two wins over Anthony Joshua and has three belts.

“You have to take your hat off to Tyson, we talk about Lennox Lewis, but he never fought Riddick Bowe, never fought Mike Tyson until he was well past his best.

“I’m not taking anything away from Lennox – he was a great fighter. But Tyson has fought all these guys at their best.”

Fury, 34, and Usyk, 36, were in line for a mega-money payday to unify the belts in Saudi Arabia.

That was until the Middle Eastern hosts had to pull out of talks, leaving London as the frontrunner with far less on offer.

But Warren has revealed the fight is due to be announced subject to contracts being signed as talks continue behind the scene.

And despite leaving it late in the day to both promote and prepare for the bout, the Hall of Famer said April 29 is still the planned judgement day.

He said: “That would be the date for the fight. At one stage I wasn’t sure if Tyson would be fit for it, but he’s OK.

“The bottom line is they have both come out and said what they want to do and obviously we have to get the contracts signed.

“Everybody is working on that to get everything finalised.”

Tyson Fury facing off with Oleksandr UsykGetty