Tyson Fury set to ‘lose £29 million’ of earnings from Oleksandr Usyk fight
With Tyson Fury set to come up against Oleksandr Usyk after losing his first ever fight against the Ukrainian Heavyweight, the Mancunian boxer is reportedly on the way to ‘lose £29 million’ of his earnings from the fight.
Now, Fury is not exactly scrounging for pennies, as he earned a reported £85 million in his first fight with Usyk back in May, and £65 million for his tight exhibition match with former UFC champion Francis Ngannou.
Despite this though, no one would be overly pleased to find out they are supposedly set to leave almost £30 million on the table in their next fight.
Tyson Fury lost the first fight to Oleksandr Usyk back in May of this year (Richard Pelham via Getty Images)
This is about half of his reported £60 million purse for the rematch, in which he will attempt to reclaim his WBC, WBA, WBO, and Ring Magazine titles.
Though Usyk became the first undisputed heavyweight champion in almost 25 years when he defeated Fury in their fight earlier this year, he has since relinquished the IBF Heavyweight title.
Usyk did this in order to allow a rematch with Fury rather than fight the mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois, who is the current holder of the title.
Now the context is set you will be asking, why is it that Fury is set to lose about half his earnings?
The answer, unsurprisingly, is an undefeated member of the boxing community – the taxman.
The ‘Gypsy King’ will have a lot of tax to pay (Justin Setterfield via Getty Images)
According to data analysts with JeffBet, per the Manchester Evening News (MEN), Fury is set to pay 47% in taxes to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. This is due to income tax and national insurance obligations when he returns to the UK, which will see just over £28 million of Fury’s prize money be paid.
The data analysts told the MEN: “Good tax advice is always important and in this case you can be sure the Fury camp will have looked at an agreement that would be the most beneficial.”
Based on the lead up to the fight, you would think that yesterday’s face-off was a staring contest, with the loser being forced to be the one who gave back the £29 million.
Usyk and Fury engaged in a nearly 11-minute stare-down that had to be separated.
When asked about the rematch, Fury said: “A little bit more focus if anything. More laser focus and not as much clowning. If I take them two things to the game-plan then that would be a bit more successful. There’s not big margins here.
“They only gave it to him by a point, [it could’ve been] a split decision either way, draw, whatever. So there’s not massive things we could easily change.
“But how about this one? How about I took that 10-8 round away in round nine? It’s not a draw anymore is it or a win by a point, it’s a clear win. A little bit less fooling and a little bit more focus, laser focus and I should do the job.”