All-time debate shouldn’t distract from Oleksandr Usyk’s accomplishments

Seemingly everything in boxing is up for debate, the fighting extending from beyond those ropes and between those bells. But this much is inarguable: 

Oleksandr Usyk, as of earlier this year, was the undisputed heavyweight champion. Usyk, while no longer undisputed (he vacated the IBF title) remains the king of the heavyweight division. And Usyk is clearly the best heavyweight of the past decade or so. 

It’s when you discuss his historical standing beyond 2015, and particularly 2004, that the traditional water-cooler conversations begin to boil over into conflict.

I’m not here to settle that debate, nor to stifle it. Debate is a fundamental (and fun) element of being a sports fan. But I just have never been too engrossed in or enamored by historical comparisons and fantasy matches. I’ll leave that to others with the interest, and especially those with the interest and the intellect, including this good piece by boxing writer and historian Cliff Rold of The Corner Stool.

It’s natural to see someone do something great and then wonder where they fit among the pantheon of other greats. What has ruffled these feathers, however, is how that discussion has distracted from – and led some to diminish – what Usyk has accomplished in his 23 wins over the course of 11 years as a professional prizefighter.

He’s beaten two of the three other top heavyweights of this era. He’s shown that he belongs among the biggest of fighters and the heaviest of punchers despite having neither of those advantages himself.

“Usyk’s march through the heavyweight division has been unusual,” wrote Adam Abramowitz of Saturday Night Boxing in an insightful column examining what has led to Usyk’s success over these past five years. “He wins with brains more than brawn. His agility, stamina, self-belief and powers of recuperation are unmatched among his contemporaries.”

Five years ago, Usyk, having concluded his excellent cruiserweight run, arrived at heavyweight in 2019 with a stoppage win over Chazz Witherspoon. Truly, Usyk’s most notable performances have been in the span of just three years, beginning with the first of his two victories over Anthony Joshua.

And what he has done is something your friendly neighborhood “Fighting Words” columnist once thought unlikely.

I had doubts during and after Usyk’s second heavyweight fight, about a year after the Witherspoon win, when he had to weather quite a storm before adjusting en route to a unanimous decision win over Derek Chisora in October 2020.

“It’s hard to see Usyk in a comfortable fight against a world-ranked big man, unless he is able to acclimate himself better to this division,” I wrote at the time. “The bigger heavyweight paychecks will be hazard pay.”

It hasn’t been easy, but Usyk earned the victories and deserves the acclaim.

The consummate road warrior, who had triumphed again and again in hostile territory at cruiserweight, won a unanimous decision over Anthony Joshua in front of an announced crowd of 66,000 people in a soccer stadium in London, earning the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles in September 2021. Usyk hasn’t been in his opponent’s home territory since. Instead, the rematch with Joshua took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He retained via split decision in August 2022.

Given the ongoing war in Usyk’s home country of Ukraine, he got as close as reasonably possible for his victory lap, defending against Daniel Dubois in neighboring Poland in August 2023.

Seemingly everything in boxing is up for debate. And the bout with Dubois is a prime example. To this day, there are those who assert the punch that sent Usyk to the canvas in the fifth round was a low blow, while their counterparts argue with just as much confidence that the replays and still frames show a legal shot. The referee ruled it low. 

Usyk’s detractors say Dubois was robbed, that Usyk’s resulting victory merits an asterisk. I’m not among them. It’s wholly plausible that Usyk could have responded differently and beaten the count had the ref not called it an accidental foul. To be fair, it’s also possible that Usyk might not have. And even if he had beaten the count, Usyk wouldn’t have received the benefit of the nearly four minutes of recovery time, first on the mat and then on his feet, before the fight resumed. Nevertheless, that fight ended with Usyk winning a ninth-round knockout.

That brought Usyk into this year and his fights with the WBC titleholder, Fury. The first, held in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in May, was for the undisputed championship. It seemed to be in Fury’s control by the midway point, only for Usyk to respond and take over, hurting Fury badly in the ninth and scoring a technical knockdown when the ropes held Fury up. The referees split their decision, two of the three seeing the action in Usyk’s favor.

In their rematch last week, back in Riyadh, Fury was once again ahead early, up 49-46 after five rounds on one scorecard and 48-47 on the other two. And once again, the second half of the fight belonged to Usyk. One judge had Usyk winning rounds 6-11 but losing the 12th. Another judge had Usyk winning rounds 6-8, losing the ninth and then winning rounds 10-12. The third judge had Usyk winning rounds 6-12. The final scores: 116-112 across the board.

Even had Fury been granted those two rounds – the ninth and 12th – by all three judges instead of by just one apiece, the result would have still been a majority decision for Usyk, 115-113 (twice) and 114-114.

Whether you feel Fury’s lineal reign continued on or was otherwise vacated, two other names rose to the forefront in his absence: Deontay Wilder, who’d won the WBC title in January 2015, 10 months before Klitschko-Fury; and Joshua, who picked up the IBF belt in April 2016, about four and a half months after Klitschko-Fury.

Fury returned in June 2018. Two fights and six months later, he barely averted disaster and defeat, knocked down stunningly hard and seemingly out in the 12th round, only to come off the canvas with the splittest of split-seconds remaining in the referee’s count, and then to battle back bravely for the remainder of the fight. The fight ended in a draw. Fury and Wilder wouldn’t meet again until February 2020, and that is when the Fury Era truly resumed, with Fury scoring a shocking seventh-round technical knockout.

In the meantime, Joshua went from a confident conqueror (outpointing Joseph Parker and stopping Alexander Povetkin) to suffering a surprise upset (taken out out seven rounds by Andy Ruiz) to a vulnerable victor (defeating Ruiz with very cautious boxing in their rematch). He’d regained his IBF, WBA and WBO world titles accumulated along the way.

Fury and Joshua planned for a mega-match in 2021. Wilder rightly stood in the way, going to an arbitrator to enforce his contractual right to face Fury one last time.

That led to the phenomenal third Fury-Wilder fight, with five knockdowns between them, Fury getting the win with an 11th-round knockout. And it also led to Joshua taking on, and losing to, Usyk instead.

All this is context for the following: If three of the four top heavyweights of recent vintage were Fury, Joshua and Wilder, then, well, Usyk has twice beaten Joshua and twice beaten Fury, who himself twice beat Wilder.

Usyk is the fourth of those top heavyweights. And the foremost.

Some naysayers have criticized the quality of this heavyweight era. Rold, the writer and historian, disagrees:

“I think the years since Fury-Wlad will be recalled as the best era at heavyweight since [Lennox] Lewis retired and maybe the third best historically. Not too shabby,” Rold said.

It is tempting but fallacious to dissect a fighter solely on their record, and the records of those on his record. You can argue that Usyk’s best wins are over Fury and Joshua. Then you can argue that Fury’s best wins were over Deontay Wilder, and that Wilder’s best wins were over Luis Ortiz, and that Ortiz doesn’t have any wins over top-tier heavyweights.

The reality isn’t always as simple. When it comes to how good a boxer is (or isn’t), there is how good he is on paper, how good he is in perception, and how good he is in proof. Sometimes those three align. But more often, we have to paint a nuanced picture consisting of three different circumstances.

What we could tell was that Fury, Joshua and Wilder had, on and off, distinguished themselves and separated themselves from the pack. Each has their flaws – pretty much every boxer does. But the best version of Wilder was only ever beaten by Fury. Fury has tended to fight either up or down depending on how seriously he took his foes, but at his best, he was the best – until he met Usyk. Joshua was (and is) hot and cold, but Usyk still deserves credit for beating the rebuilt version of him. 

No one in this era has done what Usyk has done.

What else do we want Usyk to have done during his time at heavyweight? What else could he have done aside from knocking out Fury and Joshua, or facing Wilder at some point amid the Fury-Wilder trilogy?

You can argue his place in history, and whether he merits inclusion as one of the greatest heavyweights ever. No matter what, Usyk stands out not only for what he accomplished at heavyweight in general, but also for how few other cruiserweights succeeded after moving up.

Usyk is only the third to win a heavyweight title. The other two were Holyfield and Haye (Toney’s win over John Ruiz was negated by a positive test for a performance-enhancing drug.) And Usyk is only the second to be the true champion of the division; Holyfield held that throne twice.

His legacy is secure. That doesn’t mean he can’t add to it. Usyk doesn’t have to take a rematch with Dubois, but winning a sequel would close the book on that controversy – and would garner extra credit for coming against this improved version of Dubois, who now holds the IBF title. (Dubois must first defend against Joseph Parker on February 22 on the same show featuring a fight between heavyweights Zhilei Zhang and Agit Kabayel.)

Usyk will turn 38 in January. He may not stick around for too much longer to face too many other contenders, and certainly not the next generation of heavyweights who have yet to graduate past the prospect phase.

But in just 23 fights, 12 have been for world titles. Those who seek to brush off Usyk’s stint at 200 may not be overly familiar with cruiserweights in general, and may not have been closely following the careers of what was truly a deep pool of talent hailing from all over the globe.

Oleksandr Usyk is truly the best heavyweight of this era, one of the best cruiserweights ever, and one of the best fighters in the world in this generation at any weight class. That much will always be true, no matter where he sits on the lists of the best heavyweights of all time.