Frank Warren Fires Back- “Joshua Asked For Extra $5 million”

The aftermath of a crazy week at the top of the Heavyweight division has left lots of finger pointing on why a proposed fight between Unified champ Oleksandr Usyk and WBC titleholder Tyson Fury was road-blocked from happening.

Now, Fury’s co-promoter wants to make clear that not only was former champ Anthony Joshua seriously considering a huge ransom to step aside and let Usyk-Fury happen, but that he countered demanding more money. And, that ultimately blew up his leverage,

Frank Warren claims Anthony Joshua 'asked for extra $5million' to step asidehttps://t.co/71Z0X0d3Ik

— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) January 31, 2022

The promoter of Queensberry promotions, who’s been with Fury since the beginning of his career, made clear Sunday to Talk Sport in Britain that Joshua’s greed cost him what would have been a massive payment to move out of the way. He first blasted Matchroom Boxing promoter (and rival), Eddie Hearn,

“Eddie Hearn says lots of things and he’s part of the problem why these things don’t get over the line.

“A year ago when we were trying to put together a fight between Joshua and Tyson, every week he was saying, ‘It’s done, the contracts are being issued,’ despite the fact we all signed an agreement not to make any statements until it was done.” 

Warren added: “As far as Tyson was concerned, it dragged on. When Joshua asked for an extra $5million, he said, ‘Enough is enough,’ and that was it.

“He said, ‘I’m not interested, he’s too greedy,’ and that was enough.

“He’s a champion – Tyson’s not beholden to Anthony Joshua. Him and Usyk wanted to get it on, both of them wanted to get it on. But you had two people in the middle – one was suing the WBC and the other one was asking for more and more money,” Warren told the outlet.

The unbeaten Usyk unseated Joshua as unified champ with an impressive 12 round decision in London in September. And, the “one suing the WBC” is English contender Dillian Whyte and Warren is still glowing after wining their blind purse bid Friday to promote the proposed WBC Heavyweight title bout with he and Fury.

ESPN reported on their live Top Rank Broadcast Saturday night from Tulsa, OK, that the likely date of Fury-Whyte is April 23rd in the U.K.

And, that leaves us with Joshua, who apparently wasn’t satisfied to make in excess of $20 million U.S. to step aside, and when will he rematch the Ukranian champ Usyk?

It certainly doesn’t seem that Warren and the Fury camp care at this point.