Twice is Nice for Usyk: Weekend Afterthoughts
The fascination with size in athletics will never leave us.
It matters.
It’s why a piece of the magic in heavyweight boxing is a question: how big is big enough?
When legendary light heavyweight champion Tommy Loughran challenged Primo Carnera for the heavyweight title in 1934, he came in at 186 and Carnera at 270. No one doubted Loughran was the more skilled man but he simply wasn’t big enough to do anything with “The Ambling Alp.”
Bob Foster could knock down a house at light heavyweight. He couldn’t last two rounds with Joe Frazier in a shot at the heavyweight title.
When cruiserweight king Oleksandr Usyk moved to heavyweight, the question wasn’t was he skilled enough for the division…it was a question of what would happen when he tested that skill against the mass of men like Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
He was 3-0 against that pair before last weekend. That wasn’t enough for everyone. There remained those who thought Fury could adjust, make his size matter, and reverse course.
He could not.
At 6’3, 220+ pounds, Usyk proved himself the better of Fury again, controlling the second half of the fight just as he had the first time and proving he was more than big enough for the task.
Fighters Usyk’s size have always been big enough but only heavyweight can provide the spectacle of something like his fights with Fury. Battlers at lower weights like Naoya Inoue, a legitimate great in his weight classes, debate moving up another four pounds at a time.
Usyk weighed 198 and change for his last bout at cruiserweight. Against Fury the second time, he hit a career high of 226.
He still gave up more than fifty pounds.
And he was still more than big enough.
Usyk’s second win over Fury secures his place as the best big man of his time. He proved he could do it the first time. Now he’s settled firmly that he’s just flat better. Unidisputed at both cruiserweight and heavyweight, he is the most accomplished man from above 175 pounds to infinity over the last decade or so.
A lot is being thrown around about what this all means for Usyk’s place in history. One important caveat to that question is “if he retired today.” Usyk, at 37, is unlikely to add more than a handful more quality wins to his ledger. With only 23 professional fights, and the perception that he is at the top of his game, a loss or two might recontextualize him just a hair.
But if he did retire today…
Usyk’s wins over Joshua and Fury, combined with a win over Daniel Dubois that has aged excellently, answer the question of whether he can handle talented larger men. His wins at cruiserweight, while technically in another division, had already answered how he would do against more classically sized heavyweights.
Mairis Briedis and Murat Gassiev, the last two men Usyk beat in the World Boxing Super Series, were as big and in some cases bigger than top heavyweights for much of the 20th century. Both were highly skilled and, in the case of Briedis, accomplished both before and after his loss to Usyk.
The heaviest contender Rocky Marciano ever faced was Don Cockell at 205. Usyk faced a Briedis who weighed 199 in the day-before weigh-in era so we can likely assume Briedis was heavier than Cockell at the opening bell. Usyk’s run at cruiserweight came in arguably the strongest era for the division since its birth in the late 1970s.
It’s a case where the combination of two weight classes assists Usyk’s standing against the whole of heavyweight history. We’ve seen him against quality opponents crossing the full range of sizes that has made up heavyweight boxing over the last century.
Comparisons will continue between Usyk and Evander Holyfield because both men were undisputed at cruiserweight and heavyweight. That’s fair. As this author wrote in 2018 following his win over Tony Bellew, “What he’s done in the division is up for debate compared with the great Evander Holyfield. Usyk may not have a win as good as Holyfield’s pair against Dwight Muhammad Qawi. 2018’s reigning cruiserweight champion and likely Fighter of the Year has a deeper cross section of foes. He defeated five current or former titlists in his seven title fights, handed three of those men and four opponents overall their first loss, and on Saturday ended a ten fight win streak dating back five years for Bellew.”
What Usyk doesn’t have, and likely will not acquire given his age, is the depth of resume Holyfield amassed at heavyweight. Usyk is 7-0 in the class. Holyfield won his first ten fights at heavyweight, winning the undisputed crown along the way, before losing to Riddick Bowe. Holyfield avenged that loss two fights later and went on to add wins over Mike Tyson, Michael Moore, and Ray Mercer.
Another comparison we should see more of is Usyk and Michael Spinks. With only 23 fights, Usyk’s pro career is both excellent and truncated. The same was true for Spinks who retired with just 32 professional starts. Both were Olympic gold medalists and both cleaned out a golden era for their first weight class.
Spinks rose to become the first light heavyweight champion to dethrone the lineal heavyweight king and he did it against arguably one of the top five heavyweights of all time in Larry Holmes. While both Holmes fights are debated, with the second being particularly controversial, it capped a Hall of Fame run for Spinks. The first Holmes fight cemented his place among the greats in just his 28th fight.
Usyk is there in 23 contests. There is a good chance we are watching the greatest career of less than 30 fights ever assembled. Among heavyweight greats, it’s at least the best compressed career since James J. Jeffries, who retired for good at 19-1-2 with two “no contests.” Jeffries won the title in his 14th fight and was credited with seven defenses before retiring as champion, only later to return for a thrashing from Jack Johnson.
Usyk isn’t done yet. There is room to add more to his career. At this point, depth and variety are the biggest things he can add to his resume. Joshua and Fury are tremendous wins, and Dubois has aged well, but it’s still less than a handful of notable heavyweights.
Dubois is facing a streaking Joseph Parker in his next fight, defending a belt Usyk was forced to vacate. Usyk versus the winner would be exciting for some because Usyk could become ‘undisputed’ again. People excited by that might not spend enough time pondering how stupid it is that Usyk could regain a belt from a Dubois he already knocked out three fights ago.
Dubois-Usyk II would be a solid fight on its merits. The IBF belt doesn’t make for any real dispute in this case. There is no dispute about who the heavyweight champion is. Let’s say ahead of time that reunifying in this case wouldn’t be a serious accomplishment.
Beating Dubois, or Parker who is very live in that fight, would provide the chance to add another quality win to Usyk’s ledger. That’s accomplishment enough. The same would be true of a defense against the Agit Kabayel-Zhilei Zhang winner.
Another name floated around might get dismissed by some but would be considered intriguing here: Artur Beterbiev. Usyk and Beterbiev had quite the rivalry as amateurs and the size gap between them would likely be less than in Usyk-Fury, especially if Usyk agreed to some sort of catchweight. The history of light heavyweight champions trying their luck against the heavyweight king is long and storied.
It’s due for another chapter.
Among his still-record 25 consecutive title defenses, Joe Louis defended against light heavyweight champions (John Henry Lewis, Billy Conn) and men of tremendous mass (Primo Carnera at 260 and change and Abe Simon at a little more than 255 topped that list). It could be said at one point that Louis was the best fighter in the world across a span of nearly 100 pounds. Beterbiev to Fury would give Usyk a similar unique claim (though with Fury scaling 281 for the rematch we’re sort of already there).
Beterbiev has to beat Dmitrii Bivol again for that conversation to start. Fans will be able to see that rematch, along with Dubois-Parker and Kabayel-Zhang all on the same card on February 22nd. It’s like an unofficial Usyk elimination day.
Sit back and enjoy whatever ride remains. We’re watching one of the great ones. The years since Fury dethroned Wladimir Klitschko have been the most entertaining at heavyweight since the 90s and early 2000s gave us the last great heavyweight era. Usyk has proven to be the cream of that crop, arguably the best big man since Lennox Lewis. He’s in the company of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao and a very small handful of others for best fighter at any weight so far in the 21st century.
And it’s not over yet.