On the night of May 19 in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) a fight for the title of absolute world super heavyweight boxing champion will take place – Ukrainian Alexander Usik against Briton Tyson Fury.
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The winner will become the first “absolute” in the heavyweight division since 1999.
The 37-year-old Ukrainian is one of the main stars of modern boxing, world champion according to WBA Super, IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring.
Usik had his first professional fight in 2013, having won gold at the London Olympics a year earlier. Over the next five years, he became a champion in three versions at once in the first heavyweight division, but then decided to move to the heavyweight category (the most popular among fans). Therefore, Usik got rid of his belts – but only for a while.
Before Fury, the main fight in Usik’s career was a fight with Anthony Joshua in 2021. At that moment, Joshua was the WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO champion. Usik was considered an outsider, but he literally crushed the Briton. This performance by the Ukrainian is considered one of the best for heavyweights in the last 10 years.
Usyk had his last fight in August 2023 and defeated another Briton, Daniel Dubois. In total, the Ukrainian fought 21 professional battles and won them all (in 14 cases by knockout).
After February 24, 2022, Alexander actively helps Ukrainians remaining in the country, visits hospitals, records a video message to the military – and even signed up for the Kyiv terrorist defense.
According to the boxer, at the beginning of the war he “stood at checkpoints” in the capital of Ukraine:
An enemy has come to my country, and I need to defend it. It doesn’t matter who I am – an athlete, a businessman or someone else. I am a citizen of Ukraine and must defend it. Everyone living in Ukraine considers themselves Ukrainian and has a Ukrainian passport; those who were born here, those who live here, those who came here to live, are obliged to defend the country. This is the duty of a guy, a man.
What you need to know about Fury
The 35-year-old Briton, nicknamed the Rum King, is one of the best (and most popular and controversial) boxers in history. Like Usik, Tyson never lost: in professional boxing he fought 35 fights, winning 34 (24 knockouts) and finishing one fight in a draw.
The main success in Fury’s career was his victory over Wladimir Klitschko in 2015. Then Tyson won the championship belts in the IBF, IBO, WBO, WBA Super and The Ring versions, but, according to the boxer himself, the victory provoked problems with mental health. Fury became depressed and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which he suppressed with cocaine and alcohol.
The boxer later admitted that at that time he was thinking about suicide.
In the summer of 2016 I bought a new Ferrari. On the highway I accelerated to 300 kilometers per hour and headed towards the bridge. I didn’t care, I wanted to die. I was disappointed in life, but then I heard a voice in my head: You can’t do this, Tyson. Think about the family, about the daughter and sons who will grow up without a father,” Fury recalled.
After this, Tyson announced his retirement and lost all his belts. After two years without sports, he gained 65 kilograms. But he returned in 2018. Since then, Fury has had nine fights and won eight of them.
The only draw was in a fight with Deontay Wilder, who defended the WBC world title in 2018. A year later they met again, and Fury won by knockout and took the belt. And in 2021 he defended him in a new revenge.
The Englishman’s last fight took place in October 2023. MMA fighter, former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou fought against him. Most experts were confident that Fury would easily defeat Ngannou, for whom this was his first boxing match. But Francis managed to knock down Tyson, and overall he had a fairly even fight – but the judges still gave the victory to the Briton.
What to expect from the fight
The Briton is noticeably superior to his opponent in size and experts consider this to be his main advantage. Fury is 15 centimeters taller (the Ukrainian is 191 cm, the British is 206 cm) and has an arm span of 18 (198 versus 216). But Usyk is faster and seems to be a more well-rounded boxer.
The Ukrainian himself is sure that this is more important than the advantages in size:
If this were so, the king of beasts would be the elephant.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.