Usyk retains his class in and out of ring in beating Fury
s Oleksandr Usyk walked towards us just after three in the morning, resplendent in his purple tracksuit while carrying Eeyore under his arm, his promoter let slip a gentle cry: "Here he comes, the best man in boxing..."
Alex Krassyuk is not a traditional boxing promoter, being a much more understated man than most of his contemporaries in this riotous old business. But his pride was understandable in the immediate aftermath of Usyk's decisive second successive defeat of Tyson Fury.
Lighter by more than 50lb, and with Fury having promised to take him into the darkest "hurt locker" where he would do "some serious damage", Usyk yet again used an irresistible combination of grit and dazzle to seal a comprehensive and thrilling victory as he retained his three world heavyweight titles in the early hours of yesterday in Riyadh.
Fury had dismissed and ridiculed him for years - as a "gappy-toothed middleweight", the "midget", the "bum", the "dosser" and the "sausage" - but Usyk is the undefeated and former undisputed world cruiserweight champion. He stands 6ft 3in tall and he weighed in at 226lb for this rematch with Fury. So he is a pretty mighty "midget" and a real banger of a "sausage".
Usyk is still fighting a division above his natural home - where cruiserweights are only allowed to scale a maximum of 200lb.
So the imperious way in which he stood up to Fury before outthinking and outfighting him once more provides compelling evidence for anyone trying to build a case that Usyk should be regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. But, as he spoke with humility and wit, it was even easier to savour his simple human qualities as an ordinary man, as a son, a husband and a father.
Boxing is full of unsavoury and highly suspect people. But it also produces extraordinary men such as Usyk.
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