This is Rummy’s Corner.
So apparently, it’s happening!
April 29th, in front of what I assume will be tens of thousands of screaming fans at
Wembley Stadium - the long awaited battle for undisputed heavyweight supremacy!
Oof madone!
The long and drawn out negotiations for this one are like something out of a brilliantly
bizarre David Lynch film, with many fans passionately invested in every twist and turn along the
way.
Some fans have been complaining that Fury is ducking the bout by making unreasonable
demands; other fans have been complaining that Usyk is the B-side and that he has been
pricing himself out of the fight.
But I half suspect this was all, at least in part, some gigantic charade from both teams
to help generate fan interest, because these days, fans seem just as enthralled by drawn
out negotiations as they are with the fights themselves.
But none of that seems to matter now.
The important thing is that the fight is reportedly happening.
And it’s about damn time!
We have not had an undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion in more than 20 damn years!
And frankly, that’s absolutely disgusting, and it just goes to illustrate how the great
abundance of alphabet soup has largely crippled fan interest in recent decades.
The last undisputed world heavyweight champion was the great Lennox Lewis.
Lennox earned that distinction when he beat Evander Holyfield back in November 1999.
And even way back then, his undisputed championship reign was short lived, because the WBA stripped
Lennox a few months later when he defended against the universally recognized #1 contender
of the time, Michael Grant, which was the best fight that could be made at that point.
But the WBA wanted Lewis to fight John Ruiz, whose big claim to fame back then was the
fact he was stopped in a mere 19 seconds by David Tua.
And that was the last undisputed world heavyweight champion, and by the time this fight happens,
it will have been 23 years and 2+ weeks since Lennox reigned as the baddest man on the planet.
Wladimir Klitschko and Vitali Klitschko understandably never wanted to square off when they effectively
reigned as co-champions between 2008 and 2012, and then more recently, Anthony Joshua and
Deontay Wilder both bottled it when they had the opportunity, and more recently still,
AJ and Fury were unable to make it happen before AJ’s run at the top was abruptly
derailed by the Ukrainian sensation.
Prior to this 23 year long horrendous gap, the longest previous gap without an undisputed
world heavyweight champion was 10 years; Leon Spinks held the distinction when he upset
Muhammad Ali in 1978, and Iron Mike Tyson earned the distinction 10 years later in 1988
when he stopped Michael Spinks in round 1 to earn a valid claim to the lineage to go
along with the 3 major alphabet titles in his day.
But here we are, 2023!
And as I understand it, Fury and Usyk have agreed on a 70-30 split in Tyson Fury’s
favor, I believe with the caveat that Fury has to donate some money to the Ukrainian
cause.
So Fury won in terms of the art of the deal in the negotiating battle, but Usyk may well
have won the hearts of more boxing fans due to his willingness to compromise and accept
his status as the B-side for a chance at heavyweight glory.
But none of that really matters, because the real battle will take place inside the squared
circle on April 29th, at Wembley Stadium, in front of 10s of thousands of screaming
fans.
Usyk is widely viewed as the best P4P boxer in the world today, and he is universally
recognized as one of the very best cruiserweights of all time alongside Evander ‘Real Deal’
Holyfield during the relatively brief history of the cruiserweight division.
Usyk became the first undisputed world cruiserweight champion during the modern 4 belt era when
he defeated Murat Gassiev in a unification bout for all the cruiserweight marbles back
in July 2018, which was the final match-up in the cruiserweight edition of the World
Boxing Super Series.
Usyk made one defense of the undisputed cruiserweight crown when he stopped Tony Bellew, before
making the jump to heavyweight.
His first fight after making the jump was a 7th round stoppage win against Chazz Witherspoon
in October 2019.
Usyk had his next fight a year later, when he won a 12 round unanimous decision against
Derek Chisora.
Usyk’s next fight happened in September 2021 when he challenged the unified IBF/WBA/WBO
heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Despite being the smaller man, Usyk put on a sensational display in the art of hitting
without getting hit, and he outclassed AJ with superior boxing ability and intelligence
to win a 12 round unanimous decision to win the championship.
Last August, Usyk and AJ had an immediate rematch.
Joshua put forth a better effort this time around, but it wasn’t enough, as he was
once again outboxed and outthought by Usyk, and this time Usyk was awarded a split decision
victory, where one judge inexplicably scored the fight for AJ.
Tyson Fury’s journey for heavyweight glory dates back more than 7 years, when he challenged
one of the most dominant and longest reigning champions in history, Wladimir Klitschko.
That was way back in November 2015, and to the surprise of many, Tyson Fury expertly
neutralized the potent offense of Dr Steelhammer in a 12 round unanimous decision victory that
earned him the unified IBF/WBO/WBA heavyweight crown.
Fury also earned the distinction of becoming the rightful lineal world heavyweight champion,
a distinction he still holds to this day having never lost.
Fury was ultimately stripped of and/or vacated those titles when he was out of action for
over 2 years, before making a comeback in June 2018.
Since that time, Fury is best known for his tremendous trilogy against Deontay Wilder.
Fury entered the trilogy with a valid claim to the lineage, and Wilder as a long reigning
WBC champion.
The first fight in December 2018 ended in a bit of a controversial draw, where Fury
outboxed Wilder for most of the majority of the contest, but he was dropped twice, including
once dramatically in the 12th and final round.
In their rematch, Fury stopped Wilder in a dominant effort to win the WBC belt, and their
3rd fight was an absolutely wild encounter where both boxers were dropped multiple times,
before Fury ultimately stopped Wilder in round 11.
That one was an instant classic for the ages.
Fury has since made two more title defenses, beating Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora inside
the distance.
And here we are!
Tyson Fury is the reigning WBC and lineal world heavyweight champion, and Oleksandr
Usyk is the reigning unified IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion.
The historic importance of this fight cannot be overstated, where the winner of this showdown
will produce the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since the great Lennox Lewis - 23
damn years ago!
So who will win?
Usyk is a tremendous talent who has already made his mark in boxing history, regardless
of what happens in this fight.
His resume at cruiserweight alone created a boxing legacy in itself.
One of only 2 truly undisputed champions in cruiserweight history, and the only in the
modern 4-belt era, where him and Holyfield - depending on one’s preference, those are
undoubtedly the two most accomplished cruiserweights of all time.
The fact that Usyk has been dominant through 4 fights at heavyweight, including the tremendous
championship wins against the highly regarded AJ is just something that amplifies an already
great career.
A victory over Fury would undoubtedly add exponential growth to Usyk’s career standing.
Indeed, it would make him a modern day legend beyond reproach.
And with a super talented guy like Usyk, who boxes so incredibly well, with an overwhelming
drive to win, and a general overall toughness to go along with his great abundance of skills
and talent - you can never EVER count him out entirely.
Usyk is a mighty tricky customer, who is very active out of that southpaw stance, and he
is very smart and efficient with everything he does in the ring, all with the end goal
of outboxing and outmaneuvering his foes.
His skillset is supreme to the point that outboxing and outfighting bigger men is something
we have already seen him do with great success - the two bouts against AJ being the notable
examples.
And against a strong skilled guy like AJ, not only was Usyk able to expertly outbox
a bigger man, but he took AJ’s best shots in stride, and he proved he has his own reserve
of firepower when he was able to stun and hurt the bigger man as well.
All of that talent combined with heart, courage, and determination spells trouble for any heavyweight,
and you can never count Usyk out.
But all the same, I have a very difficult time envisioning a winning scenario here for
Usyk.
I’m usually on the fence about big match-ups, but not this one.
I genuinely believe that Tyson Fury is going to prove a step literally too big for Usyk.
Usyk proved against AJ that a great smaller boxer can beat a very good bigger boxer.
But for this particular match-up, I think as the old saying goes - a great big man beats
a great smaller man, and as great as Usyk is - I believe Fury represents the first truly
great opponent for the talented two-division champion.
Even though Usyk clearly beat AJ in both encounters, Joshua’s style was never one that had the
versatility to adapt well on the fly.
While AJ knew how to use his size to his advantage in certain situations, he was never able to
do so in those fights when he was clearly being outboxed and outsmarted by a master
boxer.
In other words, Joshua doesn’t know how to fight physically, and this is an area where
Tyson Fury excels.
Beyond that, Fury himself is an extremely versatile boxer who knows how to change things
up to his advantage on the fly.
We’ve seen Fury dominate the action boxing on the outside where his impeccable understanding
of range and distance can dictate the entire rhythm and pace of a contest.
Prime examples of this are his masterclass effort where he totally shut down the powerhouse
methodical offense of Wladimir Klitschko, and also the first fight with Wilder - where
the two knockdowns aside, Fury was generally controlling the action to his liking.
But we have also seen Fury dominate fights in the trenches, where he uses his physical
size and advantage to attack an opponent and smother his counter-attacks.
The Wilder rematch is the prime example here, and then in the wild 3rd encounter with Wilder,
Fury used a bit of everything to ultimately beat Wilder down both mentally and physically.
As great as Usyk is in nearly every facet of the game, and despite the fact that in
a true P4P sense, Usyk is generally believed to be the one with greater overall boxing
talent and ability - Fury is no slouch in these areas either.
Same thing with heart and courage and determination and a sheer will to win.
Usyk has these attributes in great abundance, but so does Tyson Fury.
You don’t get up off the canvas 4 times against a lethal puncher like Wilder unless
you have that stuff that all great champions have inside of them, an unquantifiable inner
fortitude that makes champions battle on when others would cave.
As intelligent as Usyk is with incredible fighting instincts and a brilliant understanding
of range and distance, Fury possesses the very same brilliance.
If there is one thing I can reasonably guarantee about this fight, barring a freak cut or injury
or something like that, is that if Fury is getting thoroughly outboxed by Usyk in the
manner AJ was being outboxed, Fury WILL change his approach and make things more physical
in a way that Usyk has never experienced.
We saw this type of thing years and years ago when Fury was dropped by Cunningham, and
he went into mauling mode.
But Fury is smart, sure to have learned from that type of experience, where even then he
adjusted on the fly, and since that time Fury has improved his inside game in tight quarters
tremendously since he first teamed up with Sugar Hill for the Wilder rematch.
Beyond that, Fury is clever in ways that Usyk has never experienced from a top level heavyweight.
Fury is a master of feinting, a very underrated and versatile skill set, where his mesmerizing
herky-jerky movement always keeps his opponents guessing.
Like Usyk, Fury is very studious in his approach, studying the reactions of an opponent, where
he can later exploit a weakness by setting a trap.
A good example of this was the fight against Dillian Whyte, where he was gauging Whyte’s
reactions to set up the beautiful fight ending uppercut.
To repeat what I said earlier, Usyk proved a great smaller man can beat a very good big
man.
But I think Tyson Fury will prove too big, too physically strong, and equally clever
and skilled to the point that the size advantage, with all else being a wash, will prove too
much for Usyk.
Again, you can never count Usyk out.
Usyk has already proven that he is special, and he has already proven to be a great boxing
talent.
And you can indeed make a strong case that Usyk is the most talented boxer Fury will
have ever faced.
But it’s the flipside of that coin that I believe carries much greater weight, no
pun intended.
So for my official prediction, I like Tyson Fury in this one.
I don’t think it will be easy because Usyk has too many things going for him, but I suspect
that Fury might start making it look easy when we get into the second half of the fight.
I just think Fury’s size and versatility will be able to neutralize any spells of success
celebrated by Usyk - and make NO MISTAKE - Usyk will have some moments, particularly early
on where I expect him to leave Fury looking clumsy and oafish.
And indeed, Fury might look clumsy and oafish for much of the fight, but the problem for
Usyk will be that despite Fury at times looking ugly, he is almost always effective where
there is a method behind the madness.
So I’m taking Tyson Fury, and while I think Usyk might well go the distance, I like Fury
late, let’s say by 11th round stoppage.
I just think the size WILL prove to be a big deciding factor, and Fury knows how to utilize
every advantage he has, where he has a lot of tools in that toolbox.
So I am taking Tyson Fury by round 11 stoppage, but then again what the hell do I know.
I ain’t exactly Quasimodo over here.
Indeed, my track record for fight predictions suck out loud, ESPECIALLY when it comes to
my heavyweight predictions.
But I genuinely believe that Fury will win the big fight, and in doing so, I believe
that Tyson Fury will become the first undisputed world heavyweight champion since the great
Lennox Lewis.
But whatever happens, I am ridiculously fired-up for this one, and may the best man win on
that night!
So who do YOU think will win the big time showdown for undisputed heavyweight supremacy
between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk?
Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
Thank you very much for watching everyone, I hope you enjoyed, and have a wonderful night!
This is Rummy’s Corner.