When Oleksandr Usyk defeated Tyson Fury by split decision in Riyadh last weekend, knocking down his hulking opponent in the ninth round and eventually earning a narrow win on two scorecards, the Ukrainian boxer created history.
By adding Fury’s WBC title to his own WBA, IBF and WBO belts, Usyk became the world’s first undisputed heavyweight boxing champion in more than two decades. The 37-year-old’s feat, moreover, is unprecedented in boxing’s four-belt era — Lennox Lewis was the last man to unify the heavyweight titles, defeating Evander Holyfield in 1999, but there were three belts at the time.
Undeniable at every level
After winning a back-and-forth matchup between two previously unbeaten champions from a strong era of heavyweight boxing, Usyk looks set to go down as one of the greats. He has now dominated the amateur, the cruiserweight and the top division, winning every title of note.
Usyk put together an outstanding amateur record, winning European and world titles and Olympic gold in 2012. After turning pro, he unified the cruiserweight belts in 15 fights before moving up to heavyweight, where he took three belts from Anthony Joshua in 2021, advancing a career that has always been on the rise. Last weekend, it reached its peak.
Giant slayer: The 6’3” Usyk overcame a major size disadvantage against the 6’9” Fury, landing more powerful punches. | Photo credit: Getty Images
The 6’3” Usyk had to overcome a major size disadvantage against the 6’9” Fury, but it was something he was confident he could achieve. As he told Ring magazine, “To win this, I don’t need to be heavy, I need to be fast, and quick. You never see a fat wolf in the forest.”
Usyk certainly had the look of a lean wolf, as he gradually took charge of his bout against Fury. He repeatedly got inside his taller opponent’s defences to land body shots. The typically flamboyant Fury taunted his ever-advancing opponent and showboated, guard down.
Fury picked up his attack from the third round, working his size advantage and his unpredictable movement to throw right hands behind his sharp jab. Fury appeared to hurt Usyk with body shots right at the belt, and he rocked Usyk twice in the sixth with vicious uppercuts.
Another late surge
But Usyk surged in the final rounds, just as the Olympic gold medallist has done so often in his career. He tagged Fury with two clean lefts in the seventh and landed a punishing hook that dazed the ‘Gypsy King’ in the eighth. By the next round, his barrage had Fury in serious trouble and the wobbling, bleeding Mancunian took a standing count before being saved by the bell.
Fury struggled to mount a consistent attack after nearly getting stopped, and the knockdown turned out to be the decisive factor in the decision. Two judges favoured Usyk, 115-112 and 114-113, while the third gave it to Fury, 114-113. According to CompuBox statistics, Usyk landed 41% of his 407 punches, while Fury landed just 31.7% of his 496 punches. Usyk both threw (260 to 210) and landed (122 to 95) more power punches.
The win improved Usyk’s record to 22-0 and helped him join the likes of Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Mike Tyson as an undisputed heavyweight champion. He is also now the lineal heavyweight champion by beating Fury, who beat Wladimir Klitschko to earn that distinction in 2015. Usyk can now legitimately claim to be the best of his era and has a case to be considered among the greatest boxers in history.
In addition to what he has achieved, Usyk also ticks all the boxes that the truly elite fighters tick. His heart and skill are enormous — a high-quality technician with a strong chin, the Ukrainian is clinical in the ring. Tales of his training are legendary, including 10-kilometre swims, four minute-plus breath-holds, juggling, and catching six coins at once to demonstrate his reflexes.
Usyk has had to overcome enormous adversity on his route to undisputed status. The 37-year-old, who briefly served as a soldier in the Ukrainian army after the Russian invasion of February 2022, spoke of the victory as a “great moment for me, for my family, for my country”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky led the tributes to Usyk. “The Ukrainians hit hard! And in the end, all our opponents will be defeated,” Zelensky said on Telegram.
Premature end?
Usyk’s reign as undisputed heavyweight world champion may last only weeks, however. Many expect the IBF to take back its belt due to the Ukrainian’s rematch clause with Fury, leaving Usyk with the WBA, WBC and WBO titles.
History curtailed? Usyk’s reign as undisputed heavyweight world champion may last only weeks. The IBF could strip him of one of his four titles for not fighting its mandatory challenger. | Photo credit: Getty Images
The IBF’s long-time mandatory challenger is unbeaten Croatian Filip Hrgovic, who is scheduled to fight Britain’s Daniel Dubois on June 1 in Riyadh. That bout could become an IBF title fight if the US-based body follows past form.
It stripped Fury in December 2015, 10 days after the Briton took that title along with the WBA, WBO and IBO belts from Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko. Then, as now, there was a rematch clause that ruled out a title fight with the IBF’s then-mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov.
Fury said he would discuss the potential Usyk rematch, loosely scheduled for October, with his wife and children. “I’ll have a holiday, go home, put it to the wife and kids, I’ll see what I want to do,” he said. “I’m 36 in a few months. I’ve been boxing since I’ve been a child so it is what it is. Where does it all end? A hundred fights and brain damage, in a wheelchair? I’m not sure.
“But the one thing is, all the time I’m still loving the game — and I was having fun in there, I was really enjoying myself — then I’ll continue to do it,” said Fury.
Usyk said he was expecting the rematch to go ahead — but its value will diminish considerably because the undisputed status will not be in play, another damaging consequence of the territorial squabbles that have beset boxing for the past quarter-century.
But however the future pans out, Usyk knows that he will forever be remembered as the first undisputed champion of the four-belt era. Boxing fans just hope they don’t need to wait another 25 years for the next.
