Usyk

 

Oleksandr Usyk has beaten Tyson Fury to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the world in the 4-belt era. 

We are not in any of the golden ages of boxing, and the sport currently sits far behind several of its competitors in the public consciousness. As I've become more interested in boxing, all of my heroes of the sport are fighters from the '40s-'50s or '70s-'80s. But the saying holds true that as the heavyweight division goes, so goes the sport. 

In Usyk, I think our generation of boxing fans finally has a guy worth putting up there with the legends. My three favorite fighters of all time now (in chronological order) - Marciano, Hagler, Usyk. 

What a fight, and what a fighter. You don't get to see stuff like that every day. Following the live round updates, it seemed inevitable in rounds 4-6 that the thing I feared would, of course, happen. Of course the guy with a 6-inch height advantage and 38-pound weight advantage was going to take the fight. It was unreasonable to hope Usyk really could clobber a guy like Fury.

And then he started coming back. Then he started coming back hard. And then, all of a sudden, there was Fury on the ropes, dazed and getting the count from the referee, with Oleksandr Usyk in total control of the giant.

A bystander like me cannot even begin to imagine the sheer quantity of work, or training, or heart, or commitment, or confidence, or prayer that goes into doing something like what Usyk just did. But he did it. He followed through. He didn't let us down. He "exercised self-control in all things" and won the perishable wreath; better yet, he knows of the imperishable wreath, and desires it more than any earthly accolade. Oleksandr Usyk is the man, and the fighter that we needed.

Thank you, Usyk, for finding a way, and giving our generation a champion to inspire and toward which to aspire. Nowadays, the "old-timers" can wax poetic about the days of Louis and Frazier and Hagler. But forty years from now, I would love to see a pair of young eyes light up as I begin, "I remember Usyk..."