Usyk is the best heavyweight boxer today, says ‘Big 12’

“Oleksandr Usyk is without doubt the best heavyweight boxer in the world today,” said Jamaica’s top heavyweight boxer, Ricardo ‘Big 12’ Brown.

Brown shared that sentiment while speaking to The Sunday Gleaner recently from his base in Canada after Usyk scored a unanimous decision over his arch-rival Tyson Fury in their unified world title fight on Saturday, December 21 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Usyk, who is 37 years old, now has a record 23-0 with 14 knockouts, while Fury, who is 36, has a 34-2-1 record with 24 knockouts.

Ukranian Usyk had defeated British fighter Fury by split decision on May 18 this year at the same venue, a decision that Fury challenged and demanded a return.

In the last fight, however, Usyk was dominant. All three judges, Gerardo Martinez from Puerto Rico, Patrick Morley from the United States and Ignacio Robles from Panama, voted 116-112 for Usyk.

Although Fury again disputed the decision, he was not as belligerent this time around, and the consensus all around is that Usyk had won comfortably.

BREAKOUT YEAR

Brown, who is now based in Canada and has a world heavyweight title as his goal, is looking for a breakout year in 2025. He was a member of the Usyk camp for the first fight, and spoke highly of the champion.

“He is a very good boxer-fighter and his style is very deceptive,” said Brown. “The fact that he is a southpaw also makes him a very difficult opponent to fight and he uses all his boxing skills in the ring to get the better of you.

“I had some great sparring sessions with him, and another thing that people don’t realise is how hard he punches. He has an excellent right jab and his left hooks to the body and head hurt you. Usyk dominated the second half of the fight, and Fury, who did not use his jabs enough, definitely lost,” Brown continued.

A look at the statistics showed some interesting differences between the two men. Fury at 6’ 9” had a clear height advantage over the 6’ 3” Usyk. Fury also had a considerable weight advantage, as he weighed in at 281 pounds as opposed to Fury’s 226. It is interesting to note that for the first fight Fury weighed 262 pounds and Usyk 223 1/2. Fury also had a reach advantage. His reach was 85 inches to Usyk’s 78.

In the end, these did not matter. Usyk was the better tactician, and Fury played into his hands by not using his jabs enough. The Ukranian, who is deceptively quick, made himself an elusive target throughout the fight, and Fury was not able to use his bullying tactics, as his attempts to maul the much smaller man at close range did not work.

Fury did land some effective punches in the early rounds and shook Usyk a few times, but the punches were not hard enough to cause the champion any problems.

Usyk, on the other hand, had Fury in trouble a few times in the later rounds, by scoring with hard punches to the head and body of his opponent. But he remained cautious throughout, knowing that he was ahead on the scorecards.

The scorecards were the same at the end, but the judges arrived at their decisions by different routes. They agreed on the winner in rounds four, five, six, seven, eight, 10 and 11, but had some differences in the other five rounds.

The consensus all round, however, was that Usyk made it clear that he is now the best heavyweight boxer in the world.

He declared afterwards that the only thing that he had on his mind was to forget about boxing for awhile and spend time with his family in California, United States, where he now lives.

Usyk is said to have earned approximately US$105 million for the fight and Fury US$84 million.

sports@gleanerjm.com