16/05/2024
Ring of Fire : Fury v Usyk.
This weekend, in far away Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, two undefeated fighters, Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, will meet for an unprecedented event ; Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World tussle. The last time anything close to this happened, was 25 years ago, when Lennox Lewis accomplished the feat. That though was in the Three belts era. There are Four belts at stake this weekend.
As fight night draws nigh, everybody and their mama are weighing in with their opinions on how they think the night will play out. Not wanting to be left alone, I have also undertaken to come up with my own tuppence of an opinion.
Looking at the two pugilists, standing next to each other, one can be forgiven if the Biblical David versus Goliath battle comes to mind. But it's not. These are two elite fighters, probably the best two heavyweights in the world, who will go at it for the rare glory of being declared "Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of The World!"
The Big guy in this contest is the 6'9" Tyson Fury, who's skills sets belies his bumbling size. He can box. He can fight. He is undefeated in the paid ranks for a reason. He has walked his talk. Usyk, the smaller man, once held the Undisputated Cruiserweight Champion of the World, and has since stepped up to go play with the Bigger Boys, and has been very successful at it, so far, first taking Anthony Joshua's belts, and successfully retaining them after a title defence against same Anthony Joshua. Stepping up against the monstrous Tyson Fury presents a different set of challenges, no doubt. How will Usyk fair?
So far, mind games, which are part of Fury's arsenals, don't seem to be working on Usyk. It must be frustrating for Tyson to see that. Both fighters are highly technical fighters, so don't expect a slugfest, even though Tyson Fury will welcome one, but then, Usyk's mama didn't raise no fool. Usyk will do well to keep this fight in the center of the ring, and let his obvious speed advantage come to the fore. It's noteworthy to see that Fury has slimmed down a whole lot so as to counter that advantage. How much of his powers he is sacrificing with that move remains to be seen. How effective will he be in the course of a fast paced twelve rounds fight in this his new weight? Weight wise, he is in uncharted territory, going into seemingly, the toughest fight of his career.
Usyk must not let Tyson Fury corner him against the ring ropes. If he elects to play rope a dope, he will end up the dope. While Usyk does not possess the power to knock out Tyson Fury, he can ask Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury has enough power to send him to la la land.
If the fight is fought in the center of the ring, look to Usyk to win every round. His acclaimed footwork is second to none. There is no way Fury will have sparred with any sparring partner who can replicate Usyk's southpaw skills and footwork. He will be experiencing that for the first time when the bell rings for the commencement of hostilities. Will he have enough time to make the necessary adjustments? I don't think so. Every time he goes to his corner, at the end of a round, thinking that he has figured Usyk out, he will make the walk back to the center of the squared circle for the next round, only to be presented with a new set of challenges. Such are the challenges he will face on Saturday night in Riyadh. You can't hit what you can't catch. Meanwhile, Usyk will be eating up the rounds. Come round eight or nine, it would have dawned on Fury and his corner that his only route to victory is via a knockout. That's when the real drama will start. Tyson Fury will reach out for his bag of dirty tricks, a bag every fighter carries with them, just in case the contents are desperately needed. He will already by then, be so behind in the score cards, to the extent that getting a point or two deducted from his scores won't make much of a difference. He was never going to win on points. Low blows and other foul means will prop up. The aim will be to slow Usyk down long enough for a Hail Mary punch to connect. Usyk and his corner men will hope the referee is up to the task, as repeated warnings from the referee to Fury will fall on deaf ears.
Tyson Fury is a very proud man, and losing unanimously to "Sausage" as he has called Usyk in the lead up to this fight, won't sit well with him. He will rather hang his hat on a disqualification loss, and ride off into the sunset with the biggest paycheck of his career, occasionally teasing a rematch, while holidaying in Monaco, heaping all the blames on the "incompetent" referee that caused him his only one loss in an illustrious career, a loss he will refuse to accept.
Having said that, we should do well to remember what a one time Baddest Man on the Planet, Iron Mike Tyson, once said; every body has a plan until they get hit!
On Saturday night, in Riyadh, we will find out the plans from both fighters!
