Lucas Jones
The debate over who is the greatest cruiserweight in boxing history comes down to two names: Evander Holyfield and Oleksandr Usyk. Both men were undefeated in their time at cruiserweight and both remained undisputed before the decision to move up to the more glamorous heavyweight division. On Saturday, in Saudi Arabia, Usyk intends to follow in Holyfield’s footsteps by also becoming undisputed heavyweight champion by putting his WBA, WBO and IBF titles on the line against WBC champion Tyson Fury.
Usyk currently occupies 4th position in the CBS Sports Pound-For-Pound Rankings and the fight with Fury gives him the opportunity to move up the ranks. A win would put Usyk alongside Naoya Inoue and Terence Crawford as the only men to be undisputed champions in multiple weight classes.
What did Usyk do to get here?
Entry into the professional ranks came later for Usyk than most. The Ukrainian won Olympic heavyweight gold in 2012, before his first professional fight in 2013. Usyk was 26 at the time and it took him just under three years to win the WBO Cruiserweight championship with a decision over Krzysztof Głowacki.
After two successful title defenses, Usyk entered the eight-man World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament, including all four world champions.
Usyk cruised through the tournament, first stopping former long-time WBO champion Marco Huck and then taking a majority decision over undefeated WBC champion Mairis Briedis to unify two titles. He then defeated another undefeated champion, Murat Gassiev – who unified the WBA and IBF titles during the tournament – in the finals to become the undisputed cruiserweight champion.
After a final statement in the 200-pound division, a vicious knockout of former WBC champion Tony Bellew, Usyk had purged the division of all its best and biggest names and a move to heavyweight was the only sensible thing left to do. .
Instead of opting to assert his right to challenge the winner of the rematch between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr., Usyk opted to acclimatize to the division by facing Carlos Takam, who then fell in favor of Tyrone Spong, who then failed. drug test, resulting in Usyk facing Chazz Witherspoon. Usyk handled Witherspoon with ease but stumbled at times in his next fight, an October 2020 decision win over Derek Chisora.
Usyk started out as a sizable underdog in his first fight with Anthony Joshua for Joshua’s WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles. The idea was that Joshua’s size, strength and athletic ability would be too much for Usyk, who had fought a faded version of Chisora and took just two of the three official scores at 115-113.
Instead, Usyk put in a masterful performance, largely dominating the fight while rocking Joshua multiple times. Usyk showed greatness again in the rematch, overcoming a better performance from Joshua by taking a split decision that by all accounts should have been clear and unanimous had judge Glenn Feldman not handed an inexplicable 115-113 card to Joshua.
Usyk’s most recent fight was a dominant performance in which he defeated Daniel Dubois in the ninth round. The performance was only slightly marred by a mildly controversial moment when Dubois landed a shot that put Usyk on the canvas but was ruled the result of a low blow. Even if the punch wasn’t low, there’s no reason to believe that Usyk wouldn’t have gotten up and finished the fight as it unfolded.
Where does a win over Fury put Usyk pound for pound?
A look at the current top of the pound-for-pound list shows (in order) Naoya Inoue, Terence Crawford and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez ahead of Usyk.
Inoue (27-0, 24 KO) has won world titles in four weight classes and has been undisputed at both bantamweight and super bantamweight. He is one of the most electric fighters in the sport, with speed and knockout power that, at times, seems almost superhuman.
Crawford (40-0, 31 KO) has won world championships in three divisions, remaining undisputed at junior welterweight and welterweight. Although his promotional ties kept him out of the best fights available for years, he eventually broke out of Top Rank and landed a 2023 superfight with Errol Spence Jr. to go undisputed at welterweight, defeating Spence in one of the best singles performances in the modern era of boxing.
Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KO) has long been at the top of pound-for-pound lists, dominating opposition since 2005. He has won championships in four weight classes and is undisputed at super middleweight. His recent matchmaking has been called into question since he lost a fight to Dmitry Bivol in a 2022 bid to move up and capture the light heavyweight title for the second time in his career.
Usyk has no opportunity to win titles in the third or fourth weight division. There is nothing above heavyweight and going down to light heavyweight is impossible. But Usyk dominated the cruiserweight division during his time in the division. He also twice defeated one of the best heavyweights of the time, Joshua. Adding a victory over Fury, which is O dominant heavyweight of the time, would give Usyk arguably the best resume in boxing.
A win over Fury is bigger than any individual victory in the record of Inoue, Crawford or Alvarez, all of whom have many impressive victories in their careers.
There is a strong argument that a clear win over Fury should see Usyk top every pound-for-pound list. Or it could be argued that Fury’s unimpressive performance against Francis Ngannou, in which Fury was ruled out and narrowly escaped with a split decision victory over an MMA fighter making his boxing debut, caused Fury to be injured even before to step foot in the ring with Fury.
However, this is all theoretical, and the two men have to meet in the ring to settle things with their fists before we go too deep into this rabbit hole.
It’s important to note that the first time Fury and Usyk faced each other, Fury opened as a -250 favorite. When the fight was rescheduled from February to May, the fight started with Fury as the -135 favorite. Since then, fury has fluctuated between -110 and -120.
At least in the eyes of oddsmakers, Usyk has a chance to leave Saturday with a strong case as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.
