If you thought Oleksandr Usyk had done enough Saturday -- or like so many, more than enough -- to defeat Tyson Fury in their rematch for the unified heavyweight title at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, you're not alone. A lot of neutral parties involved in boxing would agree with you.
But if you also thought Usyk was about to be royally screwed before ring announcer Michael Buffer read the scorecards which proclaimed Usyk a winner by unanimous decision by a score of 116-112 on all three cards, you're also not alone. The sense in the boxing world was that the Saudis, whose money footed the bill for both Usyk-Fury fights, desperately wanted Fury to win.
Usyk bucked all the system and all the money in the world, as well as a guy who was six inches taller and 55 pounds heavier, to claim the win and remain unbeaten. He staked a claim with his performance as the most accomplished boxer in the 21st century and salted away the 2024 Fighter of the Year honors while he was at it.
He won the undisputed cruiserweight title on the road and turned around and repeated the trick at heavyweight. He's never had an advantage in any of his big fights. He's always been the B side and never had the chance to sleep in his own bed with the home crowd there to cheer him on.
Saturday, though, he held off a spirited bid from Fury in another outstanding bout to retain his titles.
Think about what this should-be superstar was up against Saturday:
• At the final news conference, Turki Alashikh, the kingpin behind boxing's rise in Saudi Arabia and who footed the bill to make both fights happen, flat out said he wanted Fury to win. At the final news conference, he said, "All of us [are] with Tyson." Now, Alashikh's excuse for that is that he wanted to see a trilogy, but he's the most influential man in the sport now and expressing his support for one of the athletes before the fight was no coincidence.
• This was yet another title fight that Usyk fought on the road. As a heavyweight, he's defeated Anthony Joshua for the belt in Tottenham, England, and then in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He bested Daniel Dubois for the IBF-WBO belts in Wroclaw, Poland, and then defeated Fury twice in Riyadh.
At cruiserweight, he defeated England's Tony Bellew in Manchester, England. He defeated Latvia's Mairis Briedis in Riga, Latvia. He routed Russia's Murat Gassiev in Moscow. He stopped German Marco Huck in Berlin, Germany (Huck's birthplace) and he won the cruiserweight belt for the first time by besting Krzysztof Glowacki in Gdansk, Poland.
He's done extraordinarily hard things the hardest way and has repeatedly come out on top.
• He defeated Fury despite a 55-pound weight-disadvantage (281-226) and a six-inch height disadvantage.
He was the fresher man in the second half of the fight, as he almost always is, and closed the show by racking up the rounds. He won the final seven rounds on the card of judge Patrick Morley, and took six of the final seven on the cards of judges Jerry Martinez and Ignacio Robles.
Fury fought well; Usyk fought brilliantly and despite whining from promoter Frank Warren and Fury to a lesser degree, there is no controversy about the outcome. Fury, who was sporting a shiner on his right eye, showed his boxing skill off and his movement. He caught Usyk with a number of big shots.
He was the Fury we saw roll to a 34-0-1 start and likely would have beaten any other heavyweight he'd fought on this day. Despite the protestations from Warren and Fury, though, he wasn't beating this gritty Ukrainian on this night with that kind of effort.
"It's nuts," Warren said when noting that Fury only won four rounds. "I'm really, really disappointed."
Fury noted that Warren had him up on his scorecard but tried to take a philosophical tact.
"Frank had me three or four rounds up," Fury said. "A lot of people had me at least two. I just don't know. Listen, it is what it is. You can't cry over spilled milk. I know boxing and I've been in it all my life and you can't change no decisions."
The judge’s scorecard from Usyk vs Fury 2#UsykFury2 pic.twitter.com/ShuATF1SpH
— Queensberry Promotions (@Queensberry) December 21, 2024
They have a right to be disappointed. The stakes were massive and Fury fought well. He doesn't, though, have the right to ruin what was a wonderful bout by claiming robbery. His Excellency Alalshikh, whom most regard as boxing's No. 1 power broker, did not say he wanted Usyk to win.
Usyk is now 23-0 and the only man other than Evander Holyfield to hold both the undisputed heavyweight title and the undisputed cruiserweight belt. But Usyk one-ups Holyfield because he won the 2012 Olympic gold medal in London while Holyfield earned a bronze in Los Angeles in the 1984 Games.
He won the fight because he connected on an astounding 50 percent of his power punches according to CompuBox. He was 106 of 212 per the CompuBox stats, including a whopping 46 to the body.
He closed the distance perfectly and was inside of Fury's pole-axe jab most of the night. Fury only landed 17.5 percent of his jab, in part because Usyk slipped it and worked from a range where Fury couldn't let it go.
He's a genius, a guy who understands what it takes to win fights at the highest level. He makes brilliant in-ring adjustments, he's able to push a pace most heavyweights can't match and he punches much harder than he's given credit for doing.
On top of that, he has a great set of whiskers and is barely wobbled when being clobbered by a guy the size an NBA power forward.
There is little he can't do in the ring. We'll leave where he ranks on the all-time list until his career is complete. He may fight Dubois in a rematch and who knows what else. But have no doubt you're watching a guy who will be talked about in hushed tones years from now.
The old adage that a good big man beats a good little man still stands up, because while Fury is a good big man, Usyk is a great little man. He's a little man if you want to call a 6-foot-3, 226-pound man a month away from his 38th birthday little.
I called Usyk a should-be superstar and not a would-be one because he is a superstar in terms of boxing skill. People just don't realize it. Big or little, though, one thing is certain: Inside that ring, Oleksandr Usyk is great.
Of that, there is zero doubt.