The Cossack Humbles The Knight
Written on October 6th, 2021 by {"login"=>"jcbphc21", "email"=>"f20181005@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"Journal Club", "last_name"=>"BPHC"}On 25th September 2021, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, played host to perhaps the most enthralling boxing match in recent years. Former Undisputed Cruiserweight World Champion and 2012 London Olympics Heavyweight Champion Oleksandr Usyk faced local boy, unified Heavyweight Champion, and fellow London Olympics Super Heavyweight, gold medallist Anthony Joshua in a 12 round heavyweight world championship bout in front of a 67,000 strong crowd. Billed as “The Perfect Storm” by promoters, this fight happened only after negotiations of an all-British title unification bout between Joshua and current WBC world champion Tyson Fury failed after an arbitration forced Fury first to defend his title against former champion, Deontay Wilder.
Usyk, who had moved to heavyweight in 2019, after claiming all the belts in the Cruiserweight category in the 2017-18 World Series Of Boxing, was installed as the WBO mandatory challenger and, after the failed title unification negotiations, was confirmed to face Joshua. Interestingly, this was the first time two gold medallists from the same Olympics faced each other in a world championship bout.
Coming into the fight, Joshua was the clear favorite, as he was coming off a brutal ninth-round knockout victory over IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev in December 2020, while Usyk was coming off a Unanimous Decision victory over seasoned heavyweight Dereck Chisora for the IBO intercontinental heavyweight belt.
Before their Saturday night slugfest, AJ and Usyk came face to face at the weigh-in at the O2 Arena. The unified heavyweight kingpin came in at a lean 240 pounds, while the former undisputed cruiserweight weighed a career-high 221.5 pounds. As always, the introduction was done by Michael Buffer. AJ and Usyk were all smiles after the faceoff and embraced with a handshake.
On the fight night, the state-of-the-art Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was packed with 70,000 fans. The national anthems for both the fighters were sung. Usyk first made his way into the ring after a long walk through the crowd of British fans against him. After this, AJ entered amidst an absolute eruption from the crowd on the classic Rocky IV anthem “No Easy Way Out.” From the initial impressions, Usyk looked much more composed than AJ.
As the first fight bell rang, Joshua met Usyk in the middle of the ring. They traded jabs as Usyk landed some body shots. It was evident that Usyk was coming forward on the champion, pushing him on the backfoot. After the first couple of rounds, Joshua was clearly struggling to land decent shots, whereas Usyk was looking unfazed, often catching the champion with a quick and brisk left hand. In the middle rounds, Joshua adapted to Usyk’s rhythm. He popped a couple of jabs and moved forward on Usyk, trying to wear him down. He threw a hard right hand, which Usyk clearly didn’t like. A decent amount of punches were traded between the two as Joshua managed to win a couple of rounds before he started to fatigue.
From the 8th round onwards, it was just clearly a one-sided affair. Joshua was breathing out of his lungs, but nothing seemed to go his way as Usyk dictated every round. He penetrated Joshua’s guard with every jab, often following with a cracking left hand. In the 12th round, Joshua clearly didn’t have anything left in his tank as Usyk pushed him back on the ropes and rained him with a flurry of powerful left hands which nearly knocked Joshua out, but the last bell saved him. Usyk had him on his toes for the entire second half of the fight. As expected, Usyk was up on all the judge’s cards (117-112, 116-112, and 115-113) as he stunned Joshua with a unanimous decision. It was a surreal night for the Ukrainian fans as everyone witnessed a boxing clinic from Oleksandr Usyk.
With this victory, Usyk became only the third boxer after Evander Holyfield and David Haye to hold world titles in heavyweight and cruiserweight and further extended his undefeated record to 19-0. The Number 4 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, Usyk, is most likely to meet Joshua for a rematch in early 2022, as his team has activated the rematch clause in the fight contract.
With the WBC heavyweight world championship bout between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder not less than a week away, the heavyweight division is now perhaps having the most exciting matchups since Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson. While the possibility for a title unification bout in the recent future seems bleak, it wouldn’t be long before the Undisputed Baddest Man on the Planet is crowned.