Lucas Jones
There is a new king of the boxing world. His name is Oleksandr Usyk. The Ukrainian became the third fighter from the four-belt era to become undisputed champion in the second weight class when he defeated Tyson Fury via split decision on Saturday night. Usyk combined Fury’s WBC and straight heavyweight crowns with his own WBA, WBO and IBF titles as the first person to do so since Lennox Lewis in 1999, when there were only three recognized titles in rotation.
Usyk also worked hard to earn the final jewel. He fought in the early rounds as Fury danced and strutted around the ring while using his reach well to frustrate the smaller man. But Usyk recovered well and held out early and turned the fight in his favor toward the end. The decisive moment came in round 9, when Usyk landed a perfect left hook that appeared to knock Fury out. The giant stumbled around the ring, absorbing more punches, before finally hitting the mat. He got back to his feet to survive the round and didn’t look like himself in the final three rounds. Now, the two will likely go for a big-money rematch later this year, but the undisputed title will not be on the line as the IBF title will be stripped from Usyk because of late mandatory challengers.
Elsewhere on the card, Jai Opetaia regained the cruiserweight title he never lost in the ring against a familiar face. Opetaia defeated Mairis Briedis before surviving a late attack to win the IBF 200-pound title. The Australian is undefeated at 25-0 and has 19 knockouts under his belt. Additionally, Anthony Cacace pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year by stopping Joe Cordina from claiming the IBF super featherweight title. The 35-year-old badly injured Cordina early in the fight when the referee intervened to break up a clinch and Cordina never fully recovered as Cacace increased the pressure before the fight was stopped.
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Fury vs. Usyk, results
- Oleksandr Usyk (c) defeated. Tyson Fury by split decision (115-112, 113-114, 114-113)
- Jai Opetaia (c) defeated. Mairis Briedis by unanimous decision (117-111, 116-112, 116-112)
- Anthony Cacace defeated. Joe Cordina (c) by knockout in the eighth round
- Agit Kabayel defeated. Frank Sanchez via knockout in the seventh round
- Moisés Itaúma defeated. Ilja Mezencev via second round knockout
- Mark Chamberlain defeated. Joshua Oluwaseun Wahab via first round knockout
- Robin Sirwan Safar defeated. Sergey Kovalev by unanimous decision (97-92, 99-90, 95-94)
- David Nyika defeated. Michael Seitz by knockout in the sixth round
