Anthony Joshua is expected to accept a £15m step-aside fee and allow a heavyweight unifcation fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk.
Joshua was set to face Usyk in a rematch after losing his world heavyweight championship belts to the Ukrainian in September.
However, the Telegraph reports that he is willing to take the very lucrative offer to step aside, on the understanding that he will fight the winner of Fury vs Usyk in future.
When this bout would take place is far from clear, although the report suggests it would be held in the Middle East.
This is despite the Principality Stadium in Cardiff being reserved for an expected Fury bout on 26 March.
That fight was set to be against the mandatory challenger for Fury’s WBC belt, Dillian Whyte, and he still holds a spanner to throw in the works of any Fury vs Usyk fight.
Whyte could still demand his meeting with Fury, he will also be offered significant step-aside money, although it will not be as much as Joshua will pocket.
Purse bids for Fury vs Whyte have already been delayed three times and have been rescheduled again for this Wednesday (26 January) which is when we are likely to learn more of the fate of that fight.
Fury’s UK promoter, Frank Warren, said that the clash with Usyk for all the heavyweight gold is the one that they want most.
‘It’s a saga but if we can keep things between us, we can get something over the line one way or another,’ Warren told the Telegraph.
‘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.’
Whyte could still decline any payment, having been waiting for a shot at the WBC belt for years, first winning their Silver heavyweight titles in 2017, before claiming the interim world title in July 2019.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn told Boxing Social of the situation last week: ‘We are all still moving toward Joshua vs Usyk and Fury vs Whyte but there are still people who would like to see Fury vs Usyk for the undisputed and would be willing to pay a lot of money for it.
‘If there is a lot of money in the pot and there can be a plan put in place to make all the fighters happy then there is a chance it can happen, but the problem is time.
‘Talks were ongoing for Fury to fight Usyk and AJ to fight the winner but then Dillian Whyte got called as mandatory and had to come into the talks, which made it a lot harder and everyone gave up.
‘The plan now is AJ vs Usyk and Fury vs Whyte but those other talks do still rumble on, if I had to bet on the next fights that take place, it would be the two scheduled fights taking place.
‘But there is a strong desire to find a way to have an undisputed fight with AJ fighting the winner – and without Dillian I think this would have happened.’
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MORE : ‘It would make a lot of sense’ – Lawrence Okolie recommends Anthony Joshua links up with Shane McGuigan ahead of Oleksandr Usyk rematch
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