Although they ‘can more,’ they have nothing left to prove

A couple of hours before Oleksandr Usyk stepped into the ring in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday to repeat his victory over Tyson Fury, word spread on social media that his (figurative) Ukrainian brother Vasiliy Lomachenko had announced his retirement from boxing.

That word, however, was spread by fake accounts, then repeated by real accounts, then deleted by those real accounts. So, long story short, Lomachenko is not retired. Not officially. Not yet.

But he’s two months shy of his 37th birthday and, having walked away from a proposed major pay-per-view fight with Gervonta “Tank” Davis this year, and with his manager Egis Klimas publicly citing “motivation” – specifically, a lack thereof – it seems that day is coming soon for Lomachenko.

As for Usyk, asked in the ring after his rematch win over Fury, “What more can you do?” he responded with his finest broken-English quote since “I am very feel”:

So Usyk, though 11 months older than his countryman, is probably slightly farther from the finish line than Lomachenko is.

But when Daniel Dubois jumped into the ring to interrupt Usyk’s post-fight interview and call him out, and an expressionless Usyk effectively shrugged and ordered boxing’s current Mr. Moneybags, Turki Alalshikh, to make the fight, I had mixed feelings.

On the one hand, Dubois – ignoring all alphabet absurdity that tries to tell the squishy-brained among us that both men are “world heavyweight champions” – is the clear No. 1 contender to Usyk’s lineal title.

On the other hand, from Usyk’s perspective… why fight Dubois again?

Dubois has turned his career around since being stopped by Usyk in August 2023, and the rematch is additionally promotable on the strength of the controversy (at least among some observers) of the punch, ruled a low blow, that sent Usyk to the canvas. But it is nevertheless a fight that offers very little for Usyk to gain, legacy-wise. A paycheck, another win on the record, a credible challenge as long as he desires to continue fighting – sure, there are valid reasons to do it. But Usyk doesn’t need it.

He doesn’t need anything at this point. Since unifying and cleaning out the cruiserweight division, he’s beaten the two next-best heavyweights of his generation, Fury and Anthony Joshua, twice apiece. This era belongs to Usyk. He’s an all-time great. He may or may not crack history’s top 10 of the heavyweight division, but he’s certainly a worthy successor to the likes of Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield.

Same with all-time pound-for-pound lists; the Sugar Ray Robinson level is out of reach, and the Floyd Mayweather Jnr level likely is too, but Usyk can go down somewhere in the vicinity of Manny Pacquiao, Pernell Whitaker, Julio Cesar Chavez Snr, Bernard Hopkins, Marvin Hagler and, again, Holyfield.

Can he “more”? Absolutely. Does he need to? Absolutely not.

And Lomachenko, though now destined to land a rung or two lower than Usyk on all-time P4P lists, also has answered every possible question anyone ever had about him. He won belts in three weight classes, including the lineal, legitimate championship at lightweight (at a time when he could surely still have made 130lbs). All three of his losses were narrow, two of them meriting asterisks (I thought the judges in the Devin Haney fight got it wrong, and Orlando Salido edged him on the cards after missing weight and getting away with an onslaught of low blows), and it’s not crazy to suggest Lomachenko could be 21-0 instead of 18-3 if he were fighting in the 15-round era.

As two of the world’s most famous men from Ukraine at a time when their homeland has, for nearly the last three years, been defending itself from a far more serious assault than anything they could ever face in a boxing ring, Usyk and Lomachenko are inextricably linked. It’s a link they welcome; they have been close friends since childhood. They’re both southpaws of immeasurable ring IQ. They both won gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics (Lomachenko’s second gold, Usyk’s first). They both turned pro in 2013, and on April 8, 2017, they shared an HBO-televised bill in Oxon Hill, Maryland. 

So there was a comfortable familiarity to seeing their names streaking across social media together again on Saturday, even if one fell under the heading of “fake news.” Maybe both will fight again in 2025. Maybe both will fight well beyond that, even. But it would feel fitting for the two future first-ballot Hall of Famers to wrap up their careers around the same time and pivot and parry into the sunset together.

Besides Usyk’s undefeated record and the nearly 100lbs gulf between them, there is another notable distinguishing factor: the way Usyk has achieved such greatness with such subtlety, never doing anything eye-poppingly spectacular as he goes about his business in the ring.

Usyk never leapt off the TV screen in that way. He is not gifted with lights-out punching power. He is not magnificently quick-fisted. He doesn’t have that one irrepressible weapon. He doesn’t produce a relentless punch output. He isn’t knocking anyone out after putting his fists behind his back or driving nose bones through brains or tying brave warriors in knots until they say “no mas.”

Many of his best attributes are in fact so subtle that it’s a minor miracle the judges consistently pick up on them. For example, my teenage son watched most of the Fury rematch with me. Several times, his untrained eye had him “ooh”-ing as Fury threw right uppercuts, not realizing that the great majority of them were landing squarely on Usyk’s left glove, as he had the punch scouted and was more than willing to let the 281lbs fighter throw it in vain and deplete his own resources.

And in his biggest fights, at least at heavyweight, Usyk doesn’t win by much. In 48 rounds against Fury and Joshua, across 12 scorecards, Usyk compiled 1,382 points and his foes scored 1,352, breaking down to an average of 115.17-112.67 – which rounds to 115-113. It’s not easy to have four fights that close on average and boast a record of 4-0.

But that’s Oleksandr Usyk. He is an all-time-great fighter without too many obviously great tools in his arsenal, but who always finds a way to get the job done. He has exceptional stamina and tends to come on later in fights (especially against oversized heavyweights). He has a magnificent, perhaps underappreciated chin. He can’t be intimidated. He has an endless supply of will-to-win.

So what’s his superpower? Nothing, really. Unless “winning” qualifies as a superpower.

Among other greats of the modern era, Usyk most reminds me of Hopkins. “The Executioner” was not a once-in-a-generation athletic specimen. He dominated the mental game, he was in extraordinary physical condition, and he used defense and counterpunching and sheer toughness to break men. He moved up in weight and sometimes found himself an underdog against bigger opponents but found ways to neutralize their size. And his career highlight reel – at least after his early days as a puncher – wouldn’t have impressed any casual fan.

(And, like Lomachenko, Hopkins was rarely beaten convincingly and lost more than his share of close decisions.)

With a 5-0 record against Fury, Joshua and Dubois, coming off two straight victories over a man in Fury who was previously thought to be the defining heavyweight of his time, this wouldn’t be a bad time for Usyk to walk away.

Fresh off a dominant stoppage win over George Kambosos that reignited some of his dormant pound-for-pound buzz, but perhaps lacking the fire in his belly to meet the demands of this sport, this wouldn’t be a bad time for Lomachenko to walk away either.

Of course, if either or both fight on, that’s a gift boxing fans shouldn’t take for granted – the opportunity to watch true masters in the ring one or two or however many more times.

But if they do so, it should be because they still have the desire, they still have the drive, they still want to do it. Usyk “can more.” Lomachenko “can more.” Neither of them needs more.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, Ringside Seat, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X or LinkedIn, or via email at [email protected].