A few hours earlier than Oleksandr Usyk stepped into the ring in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday to repeat his victory over Tyson Fury, phrase unfold on social media that his (figurative) Ukrainian brother Vasiliy Lomachenko had introduced his retirement from boxing.
That phrase, nonetheless, was unfold by pretend accounts, then repeated by actual accounts, then deleted by these actual accounts. So, lengthy story brief, Lomachenko is not retired. Not formally. Not but.
However he’s two months shy of his thirty seventh birthday and, having walked away from a proposed main pay-per-view battle with Gervonta “Tank” Davis this 12 months, and together with his supervisor Egis Klimas publicly citing “motivation” – particularly, an absence thereof – it appears that evidently day is coming quickly for Lomachenko.
As for Usyk, requested within the ring after his rematch win over Fury, “What extra are you able to do?” he responded together with his best broken-English quote since “I’m very really feel”:
So Usyk, although 11 months older than his countryman, might be barely farther from the end line than Lomachenko is.
However when Daniel Dubois jumped into the ring to interrupt Usyk’s post-fight interview and name him out, and an expressionless Usyk successfully shrugged and ordered boxing’s present Mr. Moneybags, Turki Alalshikh, to make the battle, I had blended emotions.
On the one hand, Dubois – ignoring all alphabet absurdity that tries to inform the squishy-brained amongst us that each males are “world heavyweight champions” – is the clear No. 1 contender to Usyk’s lineal title.
Then again, from Usyk’s perspective… why battle Dubois once more?
Dubois has turned his profession round since being stopped by Usyk in August 2023, and the rematch is moreover promotable on the power of the controversy (a minimum of amongst some observers) of the punch, dominated a low blow, that despatched Usyk to the canvas. However it’s however a battle that provides little or no for Usyk to achieve, legacy-wise. A paycheck, one other win on the report, a reputable problem so long as he wishes to proceed combating – certain, there are legitimate causes to do it. However Usyk doesn’t want it.
He doesn’t want something at this level. Since unifying and cleansing out the cruiserweight division, he’s overwhelmed the 2 next-best heavyweights of his technology, Fury and Anthony Joshua, twice apiece. This period belongs to Usyk. He’s an all-time nice. He might or might not crack historical past’s prime 10 of the heavyweight division, however he’s actually a worthy successor to the likes of Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield.
Similar with all-time pound-for-pound lists; the Sugar Ray Robinson stage is out of attain, and the Floyd Mayweather Jnr stage possible is just too, however Usyk can go down someplace within the neighborhood of Manny Pacquiao, Pernell Whitaker, Julio Cesar Chavez Snr, Bernard Hopkins, Marvin Hagler and, once more, Holyfield.
Can he “extra”? Completely. Does he have to? Completely not.
And Lomachenko, although now destined to land a rung or two decrease than Usyk on all-time P4P lists, additionally has answered each potential query anybody ever had about him. He gained belts in three weight courses, together with the lineal, official championship at light-weight (at a time when he may certainly nonetheless have made 130lbs). All three of his losses have been slender, two of them meriting asterisks (I believed the judges within the Devin Haney battle bought it fallacious, and Orlando Salido edged him on the playing cards after lacking weight and getting away with an onslaught of low blows), and it’s not loopy to counsel Lomachenko might be 21-0 as an alternative of 18-3 if he have been combating within the 15-round period.
As two of the world’s most well-known males from Ukraine at a time when their homeland has, for practically the final three years, been defending itself from a much more critical assault than something they may ever face in a boxing ring, Usyk and Lomachenko are inextricably linked. It’s a hyperlink they welcome; they’ve been shut pals since childhood. They’re each southpaws of immeasurable ring IQ. They each gained gold medals on the 2012 London Olympics (Lomachenko’s second gold, Usyk’s first). They each turned professional in 2013, and on April 8, 2017, they shared an HBO-televised invoice in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
So there was a cushty familiarity to seeing their names streaking throughout social media collectively once more on Saturday, even when one fell underneath the heading of “pretend information.” Perhaps each will battle once more in 2025. Perhaps each will battle properly past that, even. However it will really feel becoming for the 2 future first-ballot Corridor of Famers to wrap up their careers across the identical time and pivot and parry into the sundown collectively.
Apart from Usyk’s undefeated report and the practically 100lbs gulf between them, there may be one other notable distinguishing issue: the way in which Usyk has achieved such greatness with such subtlety, by no means doing something eye-poppingly spectacular as he goes about his enterprise within the ring.
Usyk by no means leapt off the TV display screen in that means. He’s not gifted with lights-out punching energy. He’s not magnificently quick-fisted. He doesn’t have that one irrepressible weapon. He doesn’t produce a relentless punch output. He isn’t knocking anybody out after placing his fists behind his again or driving nostril bones via brains or tying courageous warriors in knots till they are saying “no mas.”
Lots of his finest attributes are the truth is so delicate that it’s a minor miracle the judges constantly decide up on them. For instance, my teenage son watched a lot of the Fury rematch with me. A number of occasions, his untrained eye had him “ooh”-ing as Fury threw proper uppercuts, not realizing that the nice majority of them have been touchdown squarely on Usyk’s left glove, as he had the punch scouted and was greater than prepared to let the 281lbs fighter throw it in useless and deplete his personal sources.
And in his greatest fights, a minimum of at heavyweight, Usyk doesn’t win by a lot. In 48 rounds in opposition to Fury and Joshua, throughout 12 scorecards, Usyk compiled 1,382 factors and his foes scored 1,352, breaking right down to a median of 115.17-112.67 – which rounds to 115-113. It’s not straightforward to have 4 fights that shut on common and boast a report of 4-0.
However that’s Oleksandr Usyk. He’s an all-time-great fighter with out too many clearly nice instruments in his arsenal, however who at all times finds a option to get the job completed. He has distinctive stamina and tends to return on later in fights (particularly in opposition to outsized heavyweights). He has a magnificent, maybe underappreciated chin. He can’t be intimidated. He has an countless provide of will-to-win.
So what’s his superpower? Nothing, actually. Except “successful” qualifies as a superpower.
Amongst different greats of the trendy period, Usyk most jogs my memory of Hopkins. “The Executioner” was not a once-in-a-generation athletic specimen. He dominated the psychological sport, he was in extraordinary bodily situation, and he used protection and counterpunching and sheer toughness to interrupt males. He moved up in weight and typically discovered himself an underdog in opposition to greater opponents however discovered methods to neutralize their dimension. And his profession spotlight reel – a minimum of after his early days as a puncher – wouldn’t have impressed any informal fan.
(And, like Lomachenko, Hopkins was not often overwhelmed convincingly and misplaced greater than his share of shut selections.)
With a 5-0 report in opposition to Fury, Joshua and Dubois, coming off two straight victories over a person in Fury who was beforehand considered the defining heavyweight of his time, this wouldn’t be a foul time for Usyk to stroll away.
Contemporary off a dominant stoppage win over George Kambosos that reignited a few of his dormant pound-for-pound buzz, however maybe missing the hearth in his stomach to satisfy the calls for of this sport, this wouldn’t be a foul time for Lomachenko to stroll away both.
In fact, if both or each battle on, that’s a present boxing followers shouldn’t take with no consideration – the chance to observe true masters within the ring one or two or nonetheless many extra occasions.
But when they accomplish that, it ought to be as a result of they nonetheless have the need, they nonetheless have the drive, they nonetheless need to do it. Usyk “can extra.” Lomachenko “can extra.” Neither of them wants extra.
Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with greater than 25 years of expertise protecting the game for such retailers as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, Ringside Seat, and The Ring (the place he served as managing editor for seven years). He additionally co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Concept. He has gained three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Exterior boxing, he’s the senior editor of CasinoReports and the creator of 2014’s The Moneymaker Impact. He might be reached on X or LinkedIn, or by way of e mail at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.
