Usyk won one of the most difficult victories of his career. How it happened. Video

Exactly 6 years ago, on January 27, 2018, the absolute world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk defeated Lithuanian boxer Mairis Briedis in the semifinals of the World Boxing Super Series (WBSS). The fight at Arena Riga ended with a split decision 115-113(x2), 114-114 in favor of the Ukrainian.

Two championship titles were at stake: the WBC belt, which belonged to Briedis, and the WBO belt, which belonged to Usyk,

The fight was very difficult for our compatriot. As Usyk's promoter Oleksandr Krasiuk later admitted, his client was one step away from the first defeat in his professional career.

In this fight, Usyk threw more punches. Oleksandr was much more active with his jab, landing 91 out of 550 punches with his front hand, compared to Briedis' 46/137.

According to Usyk, he assumed that the fight would be held in such a fast pace, but he was very surprised that there were only a few clinches in the fight.

During the post-match interview, Oleksandr said that if he were to rate the fight on a scale of difficulty from 0 to 10, he would give it a 17.

We would like to remind you that on February 17, 2024, Usyk will fight the British Tyson Fury for the absolute heavyweight championship. The WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO titles will be at stake. This will be the first fight in the history of the four-belt era.

On January 25, it became known that the Usyk-Fury fight faced a serious problem.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, the winner of the historic fight for the absolute heavyweight title between Fury and Usyk will receive a special new belt.

Former cruiserweight world champion and now boxing analyst Johnny Nelson has suggested that this fight between the British and Ukrainian will not take place.

Earlier this evening was scheduled for December 23, but Tyson Fury was cut during his fight with Francis Ngannou and the fight was postponed. Before that, Oleksandr Usyk fought Daniel Dubois, where he won by knockout.

The last absolute champion in heavyweight was Lennox Lewis - in 1999, he held the WBA, WBC, and IBF belts, which was enough for such a title.

Former world champion in four weight categories Roy Jones Jr. expressed confidence that Oleksandr will face his main problem in the fight with Tyson - the lack of a powerful knockout punch.

On January 1, the BETSiE supercomputer, which predicted the outcomes of the most important sporting events of 2024, named the winner of the Usyk-Fury mega-fight.

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