The undisputed cruiserweight championship is on the line.
Oleksandr Usyk (15-0, 11 KOs) has been a known international commodity since his 2009 bronze medal in the World Amateur Championships. He followed that success up with a gold in the same competition in 2011 before tying the perfect bow on top of his amateur career by winning gold for the second year in a row, this time at the London 2012 Olympic games. The Ukrainian was also downright untouchable on the semi-profession World Series of Boxing tour as well. All of this was against truly elite amateur competition.
Needless to say, Oleksandr Usyk was a hot commodity upon turning pro in 2013. He did it as quietly as possible back home in Ukraine, but his type of talent can’t be kept quiet for long. By his tenth pro fight, Usyk was competing with the top of the division in recent Marco Huck conqueror Krzysztof Glowacki for a belt. The Ukrainian gold medalist dominated the top of the line foe, bringing home the WBO title with wide scores despite being on the road in Poland. The one sided nature of the win over the man who had arguably emerged as the division’s head was a true statement moment for the now titleholder.
That was Oleksandr’s first fight outside of Ukraine and he hasn’t been back since. He followed winning his title in Poland by defending it twice stateside on HBO, first stopping Thabiso Mchunu in nine and decisioning US Olympian Michael Hunter. Usyk looked human in these fights as both men used tricky styles to minimize contact, but he found them both. Hunter was down and badly hurt in the twelfth despite making the distance. This led Usyk to the World Boxing Super Series where he fought on the road three times successfully despite being the tournament’s top seed. First he met a faded version of Marco Huck in Germany, dominating and stopping the former top cruiserweight in ten. That was only the appetizer to traveling to Latvia though to take on native son Mairis Briedis in an excellent bit of matchmaking. Though Briedis is a known a bit for holding, he fought his heart out here in what I saw as a toss up fight. After twelve great rounds, Usyk had his hands narrowly raised in victory and the WBC belt added to his collection.
I will admit that I had some questions about Oleksandr going into the tournament finals and divisional unification bout with Murat Gassiev. I felt there were times he hadn’t looked like the pound for pound elite that everyone, myself included, had been ranking him at. He competed in a fight with a toss up decision against Mairis Briedis, for example. The Latvian is a quality fighter, but no one was ranking him highly. It also took Usyk a bit to figure out lesser fighters in Thabiso Mchunu and Michael Hunter. I thought a skilled powerhouse like Gassiev was going to give him serious problems. I even picked the upset.
Yeah, about that.
This time on the road in Moscow, Oleksandr Usyk confirmed his status as one of the absolute elite fighters in the sport. He handled a red hot and all around top talent in Murat Gassiev with ease that bordered on absurdity. The fight was never competitive, not for a second. The more talented man’s movement and rapid fire combinations were just far too much for the less skilled Russian. Usyk picked up his missing belts to become the first undisputed cruiserweight champion of the four belt era with the win.
One of those belts belonged to Tony Bellew (30-2-1, 20 KOs), but he never lost it. The popular British star was a new fighter to me in 2011 when he stepped up to fight Nathan Cleverly for a light heavyweight title. Cleverly was considered a rising contender and I just assumed Tony Bellew was a domestic challenger on the same level or lower of recent other Cleverly opponents like Karo Murat. The first time title challenger put on a good performance in the end though. It wasn’t enough to win, but he gave Cleverly problems on a level that we hadn’t seen yet. Of course Nathan Cleverly went on to be a bit of a bust himself, but at the time it was a minor eye opener.
After a couple of lower level wins, the Liverpool man stepped back up for a title eliminator against Isaac Chilemba in 2013. Chilemba is a tricky, tricky fighter whose South African base and less exciting style have prevented him from getting the respect he deserves from boxing fans, but he can really make it difficult in there. I thought he beat Bellew comfortably. A lot of British media disagreed and thought Bellew won comfortably. The only men that really matter scored it a draw officially.
The boxers rematched a couple months later and this time the home fighter got a fair win on the cards. It was close, but Tony made the adjustments necessary to earn the title shot. Unfortunately for him, there were no cards to worry about after his second light heavyweight title opportunity. Adonis Stevenson saw to that. Bellew was dropped and then stopped standing in the sixth round thanks to signature Superman left hands. It was more or less the predictable outcome that at the time seemed to confirm Bellew’s high regional level status in the sport.
This devastating loss sent Bellew right out of the division to cruiserweight in 2014. There he took a couple easy wins before rematching Nathan Cleverly at the new weight, this time getting the narrow win. Three fights later at the end of 2015 Bellew picked up his biggest cruiserweight win to date over strong Polish cruiserweight contender Mateusz Masternak to earn a third crack at holding a world title. That win over Masternak remains an underrated notch on his resume, actually.
I thought African top contender Ilungu “Junior” Makabu would likely be too much for him in their vacant title fight though. For a round, I looked like the genius I pretend to be too. Bellew was over aggressive at the end of the first and paid for it by literally being rolled across the ring with a big shot from Makabu. The about to be titleholder flipped the script on me in the third, however. He smashed Makabu out cold in the third round with an aggressive flurry to finally become a world titleholder. Bellew made one defense of that belt in a finish of BJ Flores before moving to heavyweight.
The now former cruiserweight titleholder vacated his belt and moved up to face longtime British star David Haye in what was considered a brave but transparent cash grab for the smaller man. Few gave him any real shot to win. He did though, emphatically. Haye suffered an achilles injury in the middle of the bout and was largely immobile for the fight’s second half. Bellew capitalized to finish him late for the upset. The build up to the fight had really captured the imaginations of the British public too and it ended up doing great numbers. Given the financial potential and the unsatisfying nature of the injury influenced finish of their first fight, the two stars met again in May to settle the score for good. This time Haye was left without excuses as the smaller man put him down multiple times and stopped him with relative ease in five.
All that leads to Saturday when Tony Bellew takes on the really admirable and daunting challenge of Oleksandr Usyk on DAZN. Maybe it shouldn’t be this way ideally, but I do again want to stress the word admirable there. Bellew is a huge name who could have chased a cash out against someone like Anthony Joshua or have taken a few easier fights for the same money. Instead he is taking on one of the best fighters in all of the sport, yes, but a guy who doesn’t bring all that much name value really anywhere. He’s doing it to try to win the undisputed cruiserweight championship even though there are more lucrative or easier options out there. Instead, he chased Usyk reportedly because the unbeaten pro is the man everyone was telling him that he couldn’t beat.
Can he? I don’t think so. Oleksandr Usyk is an entirely different beast than either a Junior Makabu or David Haye. Makabu is a crude brawler that Bellew was able to outsize and finish. David Haye is… well, probably quite shot. Before those fights, Tony largely came up short against guys that could be considered real top world level opponents. Usyk on a good day is considerably better than any of them too.
I still like the fight though. For one, if Olekansdr was going to stay at 200 lbs for another bout, Bellew is the only one that makes sense. He’s cleaned out the rest of the cruiserweight division. That atmosphere in England will be outstanding too, or at least it will be at first. Third and lastly, I could be wrong. I have had a hell of a difficult time predicting Oleksandr Usyk fights. When I’ve thought he was going to dominate, he’s been in more competitive fights. When I thought he was going to struggle against Glowacki or Gassiev, the bouts have been complete routs. The fact that I am picking a wide Usyk win is probably a good sign for Tony Bellew.
Regardless of who wins, I’d wager that all four cruiserweight titles will end up vacant after unless a rematch somehow makes sense. Bellew is on the verge of retirement after this chapter in his career while Usyk is eyeing a heavyweight title shot against Matchroom stablemate Anthony Joshua in 2019. He’s done at cruiserweight if he wins as he is favored to do.
The show begins at 1 PM Eastern on DAZN, but there is no way the main event is on before 5 PM. The undercard is neither terrible nor notably compelling. Anthony Crolla, Ricky Burns, Josh Kelly, and David Allen will all be in action. Sky Box Office will have the card on PPV from the Manchester Arena. Be there. This one is going to be the talk of the weekend any way it plays out.
