Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
By Scoop Malinowski
Oleksandr Usyk performed another fistic masterpiece to conquer the biggest challenge of his career. The Ukrainian ring marvel outboxed and outsmarted the gigantic Tyson Fury with a split decision win which really was convincingly unanimous.
Usyk applied pressure on Fury from the start of the fight, boldly pushing the fight with his hands held high and constantly attacking and hunting. Predator Usyk controlled the pace and the fight for the first four or five rounds but then Fury began to throw more punches, lefts and rights from different angles at different targets, uppercuts, hooks, feints. Fury feigned a cocky happiness with his work but it seemed intended more to try to impress the judges and discourage Usyk, a trick which did not succeed. Usyk got hit with some big shots but never was hurt and he never stopped coming at Fury.
Then in round 9 the constant pressure seemed to fatigue Fury and suddenly he round the range to land a big left which sent Fury stumbling. Thirteen more punches while chasing the big man around the ring almost achieved the knockout win as Fury fell almost limply into the ropes which provoked the referee to intervene and call a knockdown with a long count which seemed to be an intentional act to help save Fury. Usyk’s ruthless attack may have needed one more final deathblow to finish Fury but it never came and the bell rang. Fury’s survival instincts and recovery ability awed ring observers.
Usyk continued his successful tactics for three more rounds and clearly was the victor and the superior fighter. Now we know why Fury ducked Usyk four times already and had to be forced into this unification duel by His Exellency Turki Alalshikh. 35 year old Fury knew all along Usyk was his worst nightmare – and the only man to beat him in the last seventeen years.
At 37 Usyk has got to be considered one of the greatest heavyweight champions ever and absolutely part of the heavyweight elite 1%. And quite possibly, Usyk may be the best ever, certainly capable of beating any man from history.
At six-foot-three and 223 pounds he has the size and skills to deal with anyone, Lewis, Ali, Holmes, Klitschkos, Fury.
But Usyk also has more than that. He has attributes that no one has been able to solve in two weight divisions. Usyk has unified all the titles at heavyweight and cruiserweight. Keep in mind Mayweather never unified any division – because he didn’t have the confidence or the weapons to dominate any division. Mayweather knew his limits, Usyk has no limits.
Some astute ring observers are wondering how would Usyk beat Lennox Lewis and his diverse arsenal and size advantages. Even as a great admirer of Lennox, who I believe is the greatest ever, I’m not fully certain Lewis would beat Usyk. Because Lewis had two disastrous nights in his career – the KO losses to McCall and Rahman – which he avenged of course. But Usyk never had one bad night in his career. He’s never lost a pro fight. He’s a smarter, sharper, more complete fighter overall. It’s very possible Usyk could find the microscopic flaws of Lewis and exploit them, similar to how he did to Fury.
Experts and pundits will argue how great Usyk really is for years and decades. The fact is Usyk is the greatest today and he is the supreme champion of this era. It’s the Usyk era and there’s nothing left to prove.
I can’t think of any all time great fighter who accomplished a more perfect career than Oleksandr Usyk.
