Oleksandr Usyk didn’t just win the undisputed heavyweight title in Riyadh on Saturday night – he effectively completed boxing.
Usyk’s victory over Tyson Fury, the crowning achievement in a career littered with them, sees him transcend the here and now and take his place as one of the greatest and most decorated fighters of all time.
The 37-year-old Ukrainian has won every title available to him, and it merits listing them.
As an amateur he was national, European, world and Olympic champion. As an unbeaten professional he has now added the fully unified and undisputed heavyweight title to his fully unified and undisputed cruiserweight championship – all within just 22 bouts. There is simply nothing left for him to win.
That resume is already the stuff of legend, but it’s when you start to add context to those accomplishments that the scale of Usyk’s greatness is revealed.
He has spoken of how he feels a deep sense of responsibility to provide victories to lift the morale of the Ukrainian armed forces defending their country in the face of Russian aggression; to provide inspiration for the Ukrainian people, who live with the terrifying daily reality of rocket and drone attacks. It’s a pressure that’s hard to fathom.
His compatriot, the former champion Wladimir Klitschko, said Usyk made him proud to be Ukrainian, that Saturday’s triumph allowed Ukrainians to feel normal again for a short time.
It was the latest in a spectacular run of victories made even more remarkable by the fact that they’ve all been achieved on the road.
Russia’s invasion has prevented Usyk from returning to fight on home turf. The closest he has come to a homecoming bout was last August’s ninth-round stoppage of Daniel Dubois in Wroclaw, where thousands of his displaced countrymen roared him to victory.
A few hundred miles north, back in 2015, he won his first professional title against the Pole Krzysztof Glowacki in Gdansk. He defended against Germany's Marco Huck in Berlin. He relieved Latvia’s Mairis Briedis of his title in Riga and then completed the set at cruiserweight by travelling to Moscow to outclass Russia’s Murat Gassiev.
He headed to the UK and beat Tony Bellew and Derek Chisora before claiming the heavyweight title in dominant fashion against Anthony Joshua in his London back yard.
Usyk spoke on Saturday of missing the birth of his daughter, his son’s birthday and family holidays, such has been his single-minded pursuit of the undisputed crown.
It was that grit and determination that enabled him to turn the tables on Fury, who had taken control and battered him about the ring in a brutal sixth round at the Kingdom Arena.
For many, Usyk will now be considered boxing’s pound-for-pound number one. This was pound-for-pound greatness in full view as he gave up six inches in height and more than two stone in weight to conquer the giant Fury.
It was a special performance from a special fighter. Usyk always seems to find a way. He said he wanted to deliver a victory “for all Ukrainian people”, he did that and more.
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
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British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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