Anthony Yarde earned his WBO mandatory shot back in March. He has told the Daily Mail he was offered his entire fight fee to step aside and allow Canelo to take his place.
After the initial date of June 29 was postponed, the Mexican maestro attempted to muscle in on Yarde’s fight to add to the titles he already has at Middleweight and Super-middleweight.
But the Brit stood firm and is adamant he will leave Russia as the new champion.
“I got offered step aside money. First of all, it was under what I’m getting to fight Kovalev and I laughed at it. Then they offered me the same amount that I’m getting for the fight and I laughed it again,” the boxer told Sportsmail.
“I said to them, you better be doubling or tripling it to get me to step aside because this is a world title fight.”
“Yes, it’s to do with money but I wanted to be a world champion. I feel like they were just gobsmacked I’m actually up for going to Russia, a lot of people are.”
“I would rather get paid the same money and fight for a world title. They offered me life-changing money to step aside and let him fight Canelo but again I just said, ‘You’ve got to double or triple it to get me to walk away from a world title shot.”
“Either they couldn’t afford it or it didn’t make sense to them, I don’t know the reasons behind it but they didn’t up their offer.”
