Boxing: Usyk beats Joshua and confirms himself as king of the highs

A great victory for himself, an exciting triumph for his battered Ukraine: in Jeddah, Oleksander Usyk confirms himself as the undisputed champion of the maximums (he holds the Wba, Wbo, Ibf and Ibo titles), also beating Anthony Joshua in the rematch, with a verdict on points which confirms, as in last September, its clear superiority over the English, and it does not matter that one of the judges saw a nonexistent victory by AJ. Class, glance, ability to read the different moments of the challenge: the 35-year-old Ukrainian is an absolute phenomenon, and now he can really aspire to put an important seal on the premier category, Fury permitting. After the first four studio shots, in which Joshua, who prepared the match with a completely new technical staff following the dismissal of Robert McCracknell, the trainer of a lifetime, tried to escape the rival’s web by moving a lot on the trunk without giving references, in the middle of the match Usyk took over the tactical and emotional fate of the challenge, with his sense of anticipation and the ability to quickly close the distance. He went into crisis only in the ninth round, when after a close series the English managed to unhinge the resistances for at least a minute, but already in the next second the Ukrainian champion returned to punish AJ with precision, with perfect two-handed series on which the London Olympian of super heavyweight no longer found countermeasures.

Crowns joined?

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What happens now? The dream of a reunification of all the belts that have been missing in the premier category since 1999, when Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield, continues to populate the dreams of promoters and fans, but the moons of Tyson Fury, currently still holder of the Wbc crown, make it difficult to plan an event that would immediately become one of the most anticipated matches ever and almost certainly the richest. Gipsy King, two weeks ago, had aired the hypothesis of a third match with Dereck Chisora, an English derby perhaps not with the same appeal as a confrontation with Joshua but still able to mobilize interest and move millions of pounds. But a couple of days later he took everything back, confirming that he had no intention of returning to the ring, so much so that the body of President Suleiman would be starting the procedures to make the crown vacant. But we would talk about a match capable of touching, perhaps, the billion euros. A cake too big for Fury not to feel greedy.