From winning an Olympic gold medal for his native Ukraine in 2012 to his undisputed championship wins in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, Oleksandr Usyk was already trending towards being considered one of the greatest boxers of all time this century.
But what the 37-year-old Usyk accomplished Saturday, is a Exciting and efficient unanimous decision win (116-112, 116-112, 116-122) former two-time champion Tyson Fury (34-2-1, 24 KOs) in their unified title rematch, should be given a new title, entirely: one of the best heavyweights Sweet Science has ever seen .
Seven months ago, Usyk suffered a concussion and dropped Fury to take a split-decision victory for the fight of the year. This time, at the same venue at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Usyk fared better against a much fitter and more determined “Gypsy King”.
Despite weighing 55 pounds, giving up eight inches of height and six inches of height to the 6-foot-9 Fury, Usyk again landed the bigger punches in a rematch that featured plenty of close rounds. But how did he achieve the precision that was so impressive?
While Fury, 36, angrily left the ring after the decision was read after a trio of wide scores in such a close bout, Punch’s stats overwhelmingly supported the idea of Usyk being the rightful winner.
According to CompuBox, Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) lands an insane 50% of his power shots and 42% of his punches. Not only did he take away Fury’s long jabs by moving forward from the first round and setting an insane pace, he was better in almost every category, landing more jabs (73 to 44), total punches (179 to 179). 144), body shots (32 to 8) and power shots (46 to 37).
More importantly, Usyk’s head movement and defense were off the charts in their rematch, allowing him to stand so close to Fury despite the reach disadvantage and still act like a big puncher. Usyk did so with remarkable precision, variety and thoughtful craft in his offensive attacks.
The 6-foot-3 southpaw was considered too small for this super heavyweight era, which featured the likes of Fury, 6-foot-7 Deontay Wilder, 6-foot-6 Anthony Joshua and 6. -foot-5 Daniel Dubois. But the old adage of “skill pays the bills” couldn’t be more apt when describing Usyk, whose bold nature, iron chin and unyielding ability to keep even a maddened temper from scaring him mentally.
Through seven bouts since making his heavyweight debut in 2019, Usyk now owns two wins over Fury, two over former unification king Joshua and a 2023 knockout of Dubois, who returned to claim the vacant IBF title after stripping Usyk in May. With Rage avoiding the mandatory challenge in favor of seeking a contractually mandated rematch.
Dubois interrupted Usyk’s post-fight interview on Saturday by requesting a rematch, which Usyk verbally obliged, giving him a chance to regain undisputed status. But even if Usyk is gone for good after such an impressive win, it’s hard to shake the feeling that we might be looking at the most purely skilled heavyweight the division has seen since — wait for it — Muhammad Ali.
Usyk may not possess devastating one-punch power, but despite giving up a lot in terms of size and weight, he landed big shots against Fury in two straight fights. And he’s clearly one of the mentally strongest champions with the highest boxing IQ to enter the division in a very long time.
This century has produced many decorated champions who deserve historical comparisons, from Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao to Canelo Alvarez and Nawa Inouye of yesteryear. But Usyk not only deserves to have his name in the same sentence as those contemporaries, he’s in the midst of proving that he’s on the short list of greatest heavyweights to compete in any era.
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