First Things First

All of the combat sports action from this past week was overshadowed by one event. Boxing’s heavyweight title has been unified. Today we’re going to talk why this weekend’s result is the culmination of arguably the most impressive career in combat sports history.

Badder Than Anyone Before

In the late 80’s a teenager exploded out of Brooklyn to strike fear in the hearts of the masses. His style was impetuous. His defense? Impregnable. He was ferocious and he wanted your heart.

He was Mike Tyson, and speaking like that helped him live up to his title of “The Baddest Man On The Planet”.

The label was a selling point. A quick remark to add additional intrigue to everyone that heard his tirades. That intrigue yielded loyal viewers that worshiped his violence, propelling that teenager to stardom that extended beyond the square rings of rope where he traded the consciousness of other men for gold, glory, and a ticket to a better life.

Since the label was created many have tried to recycle it and the words have lost their luster. Fighters constantly claim they are the biggest, best, and baddest, but the sport of boxing is fragmented. Different groups all award different belts to their champion. That makes it hard for people to see and agree on who is the king.

Tyson was the first heavyweight to hold three separate major titles in the three belt era. Since he’s retired the sport has become even more fragmented.

In 2007 a fourth belt was introduced. In the seventeen years since the beginning of this era, no heavyweight has been able to unify these major titles. Consequently, no one really lived up to Tyson’s label as, ‘Baddest Man On The Planet’.

This weekend, Oleksandr Usyk flew to Saudi Arabia to fight Tyson Fury. A man that was reported to stand over him by six inches, and outweigh him by just under 30 pounds. Usyk went toe to toe with Fury for twelve rounds and took all of the titles home with him.

This win was bigger than another paycheck. To properly explain what this fight means for the history of the sport, and the world’s geopolitical landscape, I reached out to my friend Kyle that runs Combat Chronicles to discuss.

Heavyweights Fight For Something Bigger

There’s something about the world heavyweight title that transcends boxing. I’ve wondered for a while just what it is that makes it such an iconic sporting event, a real bonafide world heavyweight title fight. After Oleksandr Usyk finally gained global recognition as the one and only champion this past weekend in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia I’ve finally managed to place it.

Either by sheer coincidence or something cosmic, the world heavyweight champion of boxing has been a figurehead of some of the world’s most important moments and social movements.

In the early 1900s, an African American man named Jack Johnson fought for the recognition and rights of black men across America. He had to win his world title in Australia because it was impossible for him to even contend in his homeland.

During World War 2, heavyweight world champion Joe Louis fought against Nazi figurehead, Max Schmeling. Louis’s efforts got Americans to look past his skin color and rally behind him.

Muhammad Ali gave up his license to box as a protest against the Vietnam War draft. He sacrificed years of his career and millions of dollars to stand up for what he believed in.

Today, Ukraine is at the center of the world’s attention. They’ve been fighting back against Russian attack for over two years. Even their national sporting heroes have taken turns returning home to aid in the fight against occupation.

Former boxing champions and current Ukrainian politicians, Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko, urged Usyk to stay off the frontlines. It’s not a matter of if he could hold a gun or not, his best asset to the Ukrainian’s cause was as an international figurehead in their fight for freedom.

Usyk Marches Through Enemy Territory To Earn His Name

Usyk has gone about business in much the same way since he first laced up his gloves. As an unpaid amateur: unassailable. European, World and Olympic gold medals all adorn his trophy cabinet. He gained a reputation as a wizard of the ring among aficionados.

Usyk left no stone unturned when he went pro. He started as a cruiserweight and outsmarted every shape, style, and size of opponent in the most astounding way possible; doing it on foreign soil every single time.

Think about that. The Olympic gold medalist, with the backing of the iconic Klitschko brothers, had to go on the road each and every time he fought for a world title.

Usyk beat rugged Polish southpaw Krzysztof Glowacki in Poland by unanimous decision to win the cruiserweight WBO world title in 2016. Then, in 2018, Usyk took out hard-nosed puncher Marisi Briedis in Briedis’s Riga, Latvia to unify the WBO and WBC titles.

Later in that same year, four years after Russia annexed the Crimea, Usyk went into Russian territory to fight Murat Gassiev for the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association titles. Not even politics could blind the ringside officials to Usyk’s performance and he became the first man to unify all the cruiserweight titles.

After defending his cruiserweight belts by sparking out former WBC champ Tony Bellew, Usyk moved to heavyweight. Within three years, Usyk was in London fighting Anthony Joshua for the three heavyweight belts Joshua held. Competing at separate wight classes then, both men had previously won gold at the 2012 London Olympics.

Despite Usyk winning Olympic gold at the weight below him, Joshua was gasping for air under the wave of Usyk’s blows in the 12th round of their 2021 fight. The dry air of Saudi Arabia was no better in their 2022 rematch, and Usyk remained undefeated with three heavyweight titles.

All this time Tyson Fury, the self-styled ‘Gypsy King’, lineal heavyweight champion, wearing the green belt of the World Boxing Council, was denigrating Usyk every chance he got. He labeled Usyk ‘Rabbit’, ‘middleweight’, and ‘sausage’, among other things.

Fury tried to convince us that there is little point in him signing on the dotted line to fight the Ukrainian, as the bout would play out so comfortably in his favour, that he would get no credit for it. With three belts around Usyk’s waist and seemingly unlimited funding from Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, Fury could no longer deny Usyk.

A Ring Of Fire Around Two Giants

This past weekend Usyk defeated lineal champion Tyson Fury. He overcame his biggest test–both figuratively and literally–with a legendary performance that wouldn’t be possible without the ebb and flow a perilously dangerous fight brings.

The event was billed as ‘Ring of Fire’, and the date was set for Quarter 1 2024. An errant elbow in sparring opened Fury’s eyebrow and the fight was re-scheduled for this past weekend, May 18th.

Fury arrived at fight week non-committal. He seemingly wanted to be all business now that he was trapped in a fight he had tried to downplay for years. Then, the mask came off at the weigh-in.

The head went in first and Fury shoved Usyk back. Fury ended with throwing out some expletives to a gleeful interviewer. Usyk barely seemed bothered.

Fury loves to sell fights this way. His personality is as big as his six foot nine inch frame. Many who have followed Fury’s career saw this exchange as a proud man rattled by the inability to stir their opponent with the mental warfare that made him a champion.

When the fight came, Fury looked completely rattled by the games Usyk played with him in the ring. In the first few rounds, ‘The Gypsy King’ was herded around, trapped in corners, and smacked in the belly. Usyk brilliantly used straight lefts to pull Fury down.

Fury is a wily technician. Even preternatural operators like Usyk can show repeated attacks. That, in turn, offers patterns which can be countered.

From the third round on, Fury started to see openings. Fury’s early success throwing body shots allowed him to change its trajectory and whip it up to Usyk’s head. The unbeaten Ukrainian ate all of it, stumbled back, and afforded Fury breathing room.

But this is what makes good fights great. The ebb and flow. Two athletes standing across from one another trying to hurt each other, reading their opponent’s reactions, and adjusting to give each other, and the fans watching at home, something new to pay attention to.

Just as Fury had, Usyk started to see patterns. He offered a high guard, picking off Fury’s jabs and baiting him into throwing the body shot more frequently. The more data Usyk downloaded, the more his innate boxing brain honed in on a solution; punch with him.

In the eighth round, Usyk got Fury’s attention with hard counters. He sent Fury reeling to his corner.

Usyk’s barrage continued in the ninth. Fury desperately planted his feet to try a combination that could keep Usyk off. Instead, Fury gave Usyk the perfect opportunity to line him up for a big left hand that sent ‘The Gypsy King’ to every side of the ring.

Fury’s head was a pinball bouncing from Usyk’s fists. The ropes kept Fury on his feet, but only to push him back into the ring of fire. As Usyk went to land the killing blow, referee Mark Nelson administered an eight-count.

Fury found a way to box back into the fight in the championship rounds but Usyk’s brilliance could not be denied. He is now the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world after a split decision, adding himself to the pantheon of heavyweight greats.

Usyk should not need the wider geopolitical situation to further his own narrative as a great fighter. The results speak for themselves. But you don’t tend to see Floyd Patterson, Marvin Hart, or Jess Willard on t-shirts.

We can be sure that Tyson Fury will go down as a great champion. Oleksandr Usyk achieved something this past weekend that no one has before. The international icon, with an entire country on his back, became the first man to unite all four heavyweight titles after being the first person to do it at cruiserweight.

The guy literally put a pause on his prizefighting career to join an international conflict, resumed his career, and took out some of the biggest and best men of his generation.

If Oleksandr Usyk is not the ‘Baddest Man On The Planet’, who could be?

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