Late in the ninth round, when the fight still seemed up for grabs, Oleksandr Usyk landed a left on Tyson Fury's jaw. The punch had a nasty effect, as if Usyk had hit him with a sweat-sock full of ball bearings. Fury has been hurt many times in his career, but this time it looked worse than usual.
As Usyk tried to follow up with more punches, the 6' 9" Brit reeled from one side of the ring to the other, rocketing off the ropes pinball style. After one particular shot, Fury stumbled along the ropes, holding his gloves out, but where he might've killed the round's few remaining seconds by clinching, his body and mind weren't in sync. His mind wanted to hold on; his body wanted to fall.
Finally, Fury staggered into a corner. He was still on his feet, but referee Mark Nelson stepped in and started a count. The bell sounded, ending the formality and saving Fury from more trouble. Boxing's clown prince seemed despondent, woozy, and suddenly wary of his smaller opponent
It appeared the fight was over there and then. Granted, Fury went on to fight rounds 10, 11, and 12, but the sight of the Gypsy giant wavering around the ring would be the fight's takeaway image. The extra point Usyk earned for the knockdown turned out to be the deciding factor in his winning a razor close split decision.
The other lasting memory of the fight would be Usyk's steady comportment all during the buildup and during the 12 rounds of competition. This was no small feat considering the hype that went into this event being for the "undisputed heavyweight championship," with both men having having legit claims to the title.
Though Fury had tried his best to ruffle Usyk with his usual bawdy behavior - Fury's father actually headbutted one of Usyk's camp members last week, while Fury started a shoving match at the weigh-in, and did his usual clowning throughout the fight - Usyk stuck to business in the quiet, professional manner that has been his trademark.
Fury's career has been anything but quiet and professional. Even as he reaches his middle 30s and should acquire some kind of dignity or decorum, he's remained clownish. But even as his silliness remained, many were wondering how much he had left as a boxer. Did the 35-year-old behemoth still have the desire? Or had it all been siphoned off by too much stardom, too many reality shows, too much celebrity posturing?
We received an answer of sorts. He was in good condition and he fought 12 stiff rounds. When he was hurt, he shook it off and came back. He has all the championship qualities that his detractors don't wish to acknowledge. All he lacks is the championship.
It was the most anticipated heavyweight bout in some time, with the four organizational belts spread out between the two fighters, three of which were owned by Usyk, and one by Fury. The Brit had previously owned a bunch more, but had retired briefly, which allowed Usyk to step in and grab some belts. With both men undefeated and the boxing audience clamoring for one undisputed titleholder in the heavyweight class, the fight had momentum. It was an easy sell.
There was even an effort among boxing writers to proclaim it an "important" fight, that for the first time in a quarter century there would be a single man atop boxing's so-called "glamor division." Why this notion of an undisputed heavyweight champion gets people so giddy is hard to explain. The last one was Lennox Lewis, a good but not very glamorous fighter who was not particularly popular.
It's hard to say if the fight was important, though there was plenty of pomp and ceremony and it was entertaining enough. Moreover, it did seem to be a milestone of sorts in the boxing time frame, with a Brit versus a Ukrainian in the middle of Saudi Arabia. In another era, an important heavyweight fight would feature two Americans fighting in New York or Las Vegas. Those days are gone, though, along with Fury's undefeated record.
The result might've been important for Usyk, but with the sanctioning bodies being the way they are, he won't be undisputed for long. The IBF, less than 24 hours after the bout, is already making noise about Usyk's next mandatory defense, saying he'll be stripped of that belt if he goes through with a contractually obligated rematch with Fury, which Fury has already penciled into his October calendar, no doubt in between singing gigs. There may not have been an undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999, but the boxing organizations haven't cared about such things in twice that time or longer. As for Fury, he's acting as if the rematch is a done deal. He doesn't think he lost last night, anyway.
“I was having fun in there," Fury said after the bout. "I was loving it. I thought it was great.”
He cited politics as the reason for the judges voting against him, but not boxing politics:
"I believe I won that fight, I believe he won some rounds but I won the majority of them...We both put on a good fight, best we could do. His country's at war, so people are siding with the country at war, but make no mistake, I won that fight and I'll be back. I've got a rematch clause."
Approximately a century before Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was a boxing capital, and long before there were such things as a WBC or WBO, a retired heavyweight champion named James J. Corbett was discussing the sport with a journalist. Even though he fought at a time before America had 50 states, he offered as poignant a fact as has ever been said about the boxing business, and what he said still stands today. He said, "Every fighter has a night where they are better than they ever were, and better than they will ever be again." It's a bittersweet idea to think our peak may be the first step in our downfall. But "Gentleman Jim" was probably right. The new champion might be wise to consider this theory.
Oleksandr Usyk is now undefeated in 22 professional fights. He also had 350 amateur bouts, and was an Olympic gold medalist in 2012. Prior to beating Fury, he'd been the cruiserweight champion, and had scored wins over Anthony Joshua and some other reputable heavyweights. At 37, he's older than Fury. It's no insult to say he's weather-beaten.
There's a sameness to Usyk's bouts. He's a steady operator. You'd never know if he lost a step because he is never especially exciting, just steady. That's part of what makes him a likeable champion. He's not magnetic, but he's dependable.
There will be much written about Usyk being the first undisputed heavyweight champion of this ridiculous "four belt era," but the real achievement of the weekend is that he defeated Tyson Fury, a man who'd never lost a bout. For all of his buffoonery, Fury has been viewed as one of the legitimately great heavyweights of this century, a big man with charisma who can move around the ring. Despite wearing a fuzzy hat and quasi-military garb into the ring, Usyk will never star in a reality show, will never be known for his comic timing. Still, he has the sort of mental toughness that rattles a man like Fury, along with sound fundamentals and nerves of steel.
Yet Usyk looked damaged after the bout, more busted up than the man he'd beaten, with some quickly applied patchwork over his right eye. He wept during his post-fight interview, talking about his late father, and the war between his country and Russia. It was stirring stuff.
Yet we wonder if we've seen Usyk at his best, and if he'll ever be this good again. He needed to be extraordinary in Riyadh against Fury. The Brit was actually dominating in the first half of the fight, landing hard uppercuts on Usyk, hurting him, out-boxing him. There were rumors that Usyk had a broken jaw. If this was indeed his greatest night, can he do it again?
It's not an easy thing, this slaying of giants. Some of them don't die right away. We'll find out if Usyk is indeed a giant killer, or if he was merely giving a peak performance on the night he defeated boxing's best big man.
- Don Stradley
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