WBC Special Preview: Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk

Fury vs Usyk is the most significant heavyweight battle of the millennium, as the winner will become the division’s first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999

King of Four Kingdoms by James Blears

Throw open the portals wide, mere mortals stand aside, as The Giants collide, wielding their lightning and thunder, casting chaff asunder.

For the first time in the history of the Four Belts, the chance for A One And Only Heavyweight Champion, who, like Atlas, will hold the heavy weight of the Globe aloft over his broad shoulders.

The glittering prize of The Four Quartets. Not since Lennox Lewis almost quarter of a century ago, has there been an Undisputed Heavyweight Champion. That’s the magnitude of what is at stake. The Molten Magma!

Apt that Kingdom Come… or as it’s been dubbed “Ring of Fire,” to seek out Lord Of The Rings, will be held in the Saudi Kingdom at the Kingdom Arena, Riyadh.

In many ways it’s an aurora of a new era and so the saying cautions: “The dawn doesn’t come twice to awaken a man.”

As World Boxing Council Champion, Gigantic, undefeated herculean Tyson Luke Fury who stands six feet nine inches tall with a poleaxing eighty five inch reach, towers over six feet three inches also unbeaten southpaw Oleksandr Usyk, the WBA, IBF and WBO Champion, whose reach extends to seventy eight inches.

The Fury-Usyk fight was to have been on February 17th three days after Valentine’s Day, but due to the cut suffered by Tyson Fury in sparring, it’s now earmarked for May 18th.

Both have therefore had more time to get ready, or rather ready themselves. Fury in particular looks even sharper and more in trim. However, there’s likely to be a cuddly weight difference approaching fifty pounds. A gargantuan king’s ransom payday for each, with the lion’s share of the cut, going not to “The Cat”, but to: “The Gypsy King.”

A mighty ambitious quest for a former Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion to step up and take on the most colossal Heavyweight Champion, with the exception of Nicolai Valuev. Tyson Fury says that as far as he’s concerned, Oleksandr Usyk is but an average sized heavyweight, which provides he himself with all of the palpable physical advantages, leading to dividends.

Usyk’s astute Manager Egis Klimas muses this stature statute, by saying his champion must avoid getting engaged, enmeshed and entangled in clinches, to evade the massive Leaning Tower of Pisa weight exerted by Fury, which would prove a draining plus tiring trial and tribulation.

Prior to the first Liston Vs Clay fight, Cassius and Coach Angelo Dundee invaded Sonny’s training camp. Sonny’s Coach Willie Reddish was slamming a medicine ball into the big man’s midriff. Angelo laconically commented, it would be better directed to Sonny’s face, because that’s where “My guy will be applying his focus and fists.”

Doubtful that the Usyk camp are going to lean a Mini Cooper on their man, to get him accustomed to the Fury clinches. His job is to jab, stick, apply flurries and then… evade.

So, Oleksandr who learned his trade winning the World Championships and Olympic Gold, even before putting in a glove in the pro arena, will try to skirt around potential disaster with quick, pinpoint attacks and then step aside, laterally and literally from an advancing giant, who is indeed able and nimble. Far from lumbering.

No matter if a fighter stands five feet or seven feet tall, his bottom will dust the canvass, if he’s hit right on the button. Early in his career Tyson Fury was dropped by Neven Pajkic, and then by Steve Cunningham on his US debut at Madison Square Garden. Needled, yet needless to say, he got up and stopped both.

In his three epics with Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury was dropped four times. He returned the favor fivefold. In his most recent non- title fight against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou he was put down by a left hook in round three and labored to a SD. It was an atrocious performance. As the song goes: “Two lovely black eyes, just for telling a man he was wrong.

Tyson Fury hadn’t taken the fight sufficiently seriously and it’s starkly obvious he hadn’t trained flat out. The love handles around his waist were more apparent than usual and he was almost embarrassed. This came close to derailing the night of glory, which had to be put back, so he could recover from a veritable buffeting. Then the sliced eye!

It hadn’t been quite as gory as his encounter with southpaw Swede Otto Wallin. Back then, a left hook sliced open Fury’s right brow in round three. A subsequent clash of heads then gashed his right eyelid. The combined collateral damage required forty seven stiches of micro surgery to seal and repair. Oleksandr Usyk has been cut but he’s never been canvassed in his pro career.

For this one, Tyson Fury hasn’t cut corners in his preparations. Recent photos show that he’s honed himself into a leaner, meaner fighting machine. It would be a mistake to judge him on his previous and most recent fight. He’s motivated and he’s ready for The Supreme Test.

On a recent visit to Martes a Café at Sports and Chips in Mexico City, Egis Klimas confided that his exacting task involved finding extra tall rangy sparring partners for his fighter. Even then he said there was still a lot of strenuous and meticulous work remaining to get Oleksandr into tip top shape for this unique encounter. This contradicted Oleksandr, who when he visited the World Boxing Council Convention in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last November insisted he was good and ready to fight Tyson Fury, then and there!

Nicknamed “The Cat” Oleksandr Usyk is confidently predicting this will be Year of The Cat. No: “On a hot tin roof” scenario for him, as he unhinged and derailed a potential Battle of Britain clause because he twice defeated Anthony Joshua. So that fight with Fury was out of the window.

He prudently took his time in recovering and regaining his composure from the fifth round Daniel Dubois body blow in Poland. The chance was there and then gone…For Dubois it evaporated. Dubois was knocked down in the eighth and ninth and counted out. The margin of the punch landing was controversial . The eventual outcome wasn’t

Both of Fury and Usyk possess ring smarts, have overcome adversity and know how to grasp the main chance, when opportunity knocks. Fury has been known to briefly and adroitly fight from a southpaw stance. Perhaps not a good idea against left handed Usyk?

Many experts say that an in shape, focused Tyson Fury will prove just too big and powerful for Oleksandr Usyk, who aged thirty seven, with the same birthday as Muhammad Ali, is almost two years older than the Mancunian.

Others predict that speed and agility will be the decisive factors: “He that sows the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.” All four belts are there for the taking. When all is said and done: “Four things come not back. The spoken word, the sped arrow, past life…and the neglected opportunity.”

 

Tale of the Tape

“The Gypsy King” Tyson Fury
WBC Heavyweight World Champion / 4th Title Defence

Age: 35
DOB: August 12, 1988
Residence: Morecambe, Lancashire
Birthplace: Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Record: 34-0-1, 24 KOs
Total rounds: 230
World championship fights: 5-0-1, 4 KO
Height: 6’9” – 206cm
Reach: 85” – 216cm
Stance: Right-handed
Manager: Spencer Brown
Trainer: SugarHill Steward
Promoters: Queensberry Promotions + Top Rank

 

Oleksandr Usyk
IBF, WBA Super, WBO Heavyweight World Champion, 3rd Title Defence

Age: 37
DOB: January 17, 1987
Residence: Kyiv, Ukraine
Birthplace: Simferopol, Crimea
Record: 21-0, 14 KOs
Total rounds: 177
World championship fights: 10-0, 4 KOs
Height: 6’3” – 191cm
Reach: 78” – 198cm
Stance: Left-handed
Manager: Egis Klimas
Trainer: Yuriy Tkachenko

 

Tale of the Tape

“The Gypsy King” Tyson Fury
WBC Heavyweight World Champion / 4th Title Defence

Age: 35
DOB: August 12, 1988
Residence: Morecambe, Lancashire
Birthplace: Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Record: 34-0-1, 24 KOs
Total rounds: 230
World championship fights: 5-0-1, 4 KO
Height: 6’9” – 206cm
Reach: 85” – 216cm
Stance: Right-handed
Manager: Spencer Brown
Trainer: SugarHill Steward
Promoters: Queensberry Promotions + Top Rank

 

Oleksandr Usyk
IBF, WBA Super, WBO Heavyweight World Champion, 3rd Title Defence

Age: 37
DOB: January 17, 1987
Residence: Kyiv, Ukraine
Birthplace: Simferopol, Crimea
Record: 21-0, 14 KOs
Total rounds: 177
World championship fights: 10-0, 4 KOs
Height: 6’3” – 191cm
Reach: 78” – 198cm
Stance: Left-handed
Manager: Egis Klimas
Trainer: Yuriy Tkachenko