Tomorrow we will witness the most anticipated rematch of recent years as the 37-year-old left-handed Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk (22-0, 14 KOs) will defend his 3 belts (WBC, WBA , WBO) heavyweight against the 36-year-old British “Gypsy King” Tyson Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs).
This event is presented as part of the “Riyadh Seasons” at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh. He literally turned the world of international boxing upside down, after only 1 year of operations, by investing hundreds of millions to produce all the fights according to his most original fantasies.
The result is that duels that were unthinkable just a few months ago due to differences between promoters and television affiliations have been eliminated thanks to Arabian petro dollars.
In a fight which completely fulfilled its promises, the two modern fighters that are Usyk and Fury gave the best of their skills, their intelligence, their resilience as well as their physical capacity to offer intense, spectacular engagements where the advantage constantly swung from one side to the other.
At the end of 12 grueling rounds of mutual violent attacks where courage often compensated for strategic failures, Oleksandr Usyk, by shared decision of the judges, became the first boxer in history to conquer all the major light heavyweight and heavy weights.
Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield (44-10-2, 29 KOs) narrowly missed this feat by being limited to a draw in his first fight against Lennox Lewis in 1999.
It was also the first complete unification of the heavyweights since British Canadian Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KOs) in 1999 who won all the hardware in the rematch against Holyfield.
It took several months for the two adversaries to be able to heal their wounds, to understand what had happened to conclude what had to be done differently for the resumption on December 21 which will take place under the same conditions and on the same tray than last time.
It was Scott Adams who said that: “Normal people think that if it ain't broke it shouldn't be fixed, but engineers think that if it ain't broke it shouldn't be fixed.” doesn't have enough features yet. You have to surrender to the brokenness to understand the limits.
As neither Usyk nor Fury are normal people and as the result was very divided, it is a safe bet that if neither one nor the other made changes we would still have a split decision and the winner decided at heads or tails.
So for the revenge the two changed their preparation to try to do it better and differently while trying to predict the other's recipe.
For Tyson Fury his camp was completely different. The last time he started it at his home in Morecambe near his family and then brought a lot of people with him to Riyadh 4 weeks before the fight. His father Peter was everywhere and very vocal to the point of burying Sugar Hill's voice in the corner. We also remember the headbutt he gave a Usyk supporter the day before the weigh-in, creating too many distractions.
Other factors potentially affected Fury. We remember that the cut at the arcade required a first postponement. When the date of May 8 was announced, there was a clause that said that if, for any reason, the fight was postponed again, the offender had a penalty of 10 million. Obviously extraordinary precautions had to be put in place in the training combat sessions.
We must also consider that Paris, Fury's wife, unlike all his previous fights was not in Riyadh last time. Six months pregnant, she had just lost her baby and could not make the trip. Those close to Fury confirmed that he was affected.
This time it was in Malta that the entire training camp took place far from his entire family whom he had not seen for 3 months. Paris will be present in the fight this time.
His father Peter did not attend training camp and Fury's trainer Hill Steward confirmed he would not be around for the fight either. In fact Peter Fury was a real disaster with his frequent interventions both in training and during the fight last time.
The atmosphere at the camp was also totally different where few people had access and where the 6'9'' giant was totally focused on the task without any distraction.
Although the adjustments didn't seem as major, Usyk's camp was completely sealed off and visitors banned. It was held in Gandia, Spain. Even Russ Anber was not invited to camp, for the first time since the Ukrainian became champion. Not that our friend Russ is disowned, he will be in Usyk's corner on Saturday, but it is an indication that we did things differently.
So what will it be like when the first bell rings?
Last May Tyson Fury wanted to be handsome, well-shaven and clean, he hired a nutritionist to have a sculptural body and on Instagram he posed regularly showing off his “six pack that we were discovering for the first time. “.
He presented himself to the Sultan's kingdom only on Saturday December 12, 7 days before the date of hostilities. He arrived with a long, shaggy beard, wearing baggy clothes to hide the 20 extra pounds he will display on the official scale.
He is much less demonstrative, has fulfilled his tasks of promoting the event, but nothing more, he seems on a mission.
He repeats in vain, in conferences and interviews, that he will apply the same game plan, that is to say move behind an educated jab to control the distance. This strategy was still profitable for him in the first half of the fight where he dominated and stunned his opponent several times.
But this strategy could not resist Usyk's ability to adapt nor the fatigue that accumulated, the same which made him slow down his legs and affect his quick draw.
Usyk for his part was also less expressive. He had the habit of repeating his opponent's facial expressions and making fun of them. This time we don't want to provoke the other and we have obvious respect for each other.
The Ukrainian has already been in this situation against Anthony Joshua and despite a recurrence and victory in the rematch, the task had been much more difficult. Joshua had made corrections which almost paid off. He therefore knows the magnitude of the task that awaits him.
They say in boxing that if you can't rise to your opponent's skill level, bring him down to your level. This is what Fury did in the second fight against Wilder. Limited to a draw in the previous outing while trying to keep Wilder at bay, he made himself the aggressor in the rematch by using his extra 42 pounds to his advantage to surprise him and dethrone him with a TK-O. in the 7th round.
So Saturday, around 6:00 p.m. Quebec time, I expect to see an aggressive Fury who will take all the rope that the referee will give him to push, hold, crush, push and hit everything that moves to annihilate science, Usyk's speed, technique and movement.
But Usyk is not Wilder and he knows what awaits him. He hired partners similar in size to his opponent who repeatedly simulated his attacks. Wilder was surprised, Usyk will not be.
Once again the tenacity, the courage, the stubbornness of the two belligerents will be tested to the limit of their capacity and these values cannot be acquired through training, they are intrinsic to individuals, they are in its deep guts, in their DNA.
One carries within him all the rage of a people taken advantage of by a despicable invader and the other is an eccentric, non-conformist gypsy, who has always fought the establishment and continually imposed his way.
The result is a titanic, intense and spectacular confrontation that will have us on the edge of our seats from start to finish. We will see the momentum shift from one side to the other during the 12 rounds and in the end, no matter the result, we will be happy to have witnessed the second act which will possibly turn into one of the great trilogies of heavyweight history.
I wish you good boxing and have a good week!
