USYK vs GASSIEV
Previewing the mouth-watering World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight final
IT has been encouraging, if a bit surreal, to see Saturday’s(july 21) World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) cruiserweight final between Oleksandr Usyk and Murat Gassiev frequently advertised on ITV during World Cup games. Exposed to an audience of millions, these brief moments have provided the event, televised live on ITV Box Office, with some priceless promotion and a push it not only needs but deserves. Hallelujah.
Yet, when watching these adverts in the company of others, football fans, you will have quickly realised the typical response to Usyk vs. Gassiev being advertised at half-time as a pay-per-view offering was something along the lines of this: Who? What? Why?
They, the unaware, the uneducated, first wanted to know more about Oleksandr Usyk and Murat Gassiev and the World Boxing Super Series. Then they wanted to know why their fight was being promoted during a World Cup game. Finally, they wanted to know why viewing their final, hosted in Moscow, Russia, came at a cost of £9.95.
This happened to me more than once, and each time I feigned ignorance. I hoped the moment would pass. I quickly refocused on football, a language the entire nation seemingly now understands.
On reflection, however, it’s likely I closed up for two reasons: one, because it’s pointless explaining the intricacies of a WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO cruiserweight title fight to people obsessed with telling you something’s coming home every five minutes, and two, because I wanted to keep Usyk and Gassiev all to myself. Your favourite underground band, you want them to continue playing intimate venues, if only to avoid exasperating conversations and the inconvenience of paying through the nose on the secondary ticket market to watch them in a soldout arena.
Frankly, given the last four weeks, a period in which everybody became a football expert and the sport became more important than life itself, there’s satisfaction to be had from knowing Usyk vs. Gassiev, our World Cup final, will be watched only by people who care. People who see value for money. People
‘I WOULD FIGHT HIM ANYWHERE, USYK WILL FEEL THE SAME WAY’
who have followed the story.
As for the story, it began with a quarter-final in Berlin before moving on to Newark and Riga and Sochi and now, with both still undefeated, culminates in Moscow (after an original date of May 11 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia was scuppered by a Usyk elbow injury). Moscow, nearly a week on from the World Cup final, is the right choice and a fitting backdrop for what many, those in the know at least, believe has the potential to be the best fight of 2018. It also works for Gassiev, the Russian.
“I would fight anywhere in the world,” he said, “but it is a plus for my mother and brother that they easily can watch the fight live. I am sure the final will be a very interesting and good fight for fans all over the world.
“Professional athletes should be ready to go wherever the organisers say, and if the organisers of the series decide that it is necessary to hold a fight in Kiev, Berlin or on the moon, then I would be ready to fly there. I am sure that Usyk would have responded in the same way.”
So far, the two of them, Usyk and Gassiev, have been refreshingly clinical, as well as entertaining, on their road to the
WBSS final, and it’s for this reason their fight is so highly anticipated. It’s also the reason why it’s so difficult to call.
Southpaw Usyk, 14-0 (11), is a busy box-puncher whose expert grasp of distance and range is perennially at war with his sometimes-greater desire to get down and dirty inside. This makes him technically outstanding, from a coach’s standpoint, but also a fan favourite, someone whose fights are now can’t-miss spectacles.
Talented but tough, Usyk, the WBC and WBO champion, is just as likely to give fans a 12-round war featuring exchanges and momentum shifts as he is a 12-round clinic controlled with poise, sound fundamentals and ring generalship. But whatever he gives you, he gives you with style.
The Ukrainian’s semi-final win over Mairis Briedis, for instance, remains one of the best and most dramatic fights of 2018 and encapsulated Usyk’s ability to mix boxing with brawling and win but never at the expense of entertainment. Out of range, or in the pocket, Usyk was generous enough to maintain a high punch output. He refused to run. Nor did he hide when Briedis stepped on the gas and finished strongly.
Instead, Usyk, even in his more erratic moments, the moments that will give Gassiev and others confidence, stayed true to his modus operandi. He gritted it out, his floppy hair flying with punches thrown and received, and earned a majority decision win the hard way.
Of course, when stuck in this mindset, the 31-year-old sacrifices a lot of what makes him hard to beat. He transitions from a large, imposing lefty with an uncanny ability to pop punches on
the move to a rugged slugger with good variety but a suddenly porous defence. But that’s okay. It’s all good fun. Usyk, rather than concede he has been unsettled, seems to embrace the battle. He went there with Briedis, perhaps voluntarily, and did so because it was one way of stifling the Latvian and halting his momentum. It was a risk, but the right one to take.
A similar approach might be needed against Gassiev, 26-0 (19), the WBA and IBF champion whose fighting style has a lot in common with that of Gennady Golovkin, his training partner. Tuck up tight, stalk the prey, and then explode when the opportunity presents itself, Gassiev, like Golovkin, is the very embodiment of seek-and-destroy.
Or at least that was the view going into his semi-final fight with Cuba’s Yunier Dorticos back in February ( just one week after Usyk vs. Breidis). Prior to that, in scraps against the likes of Denis Lebedev and Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Gassiev was a marauding knockout artist with body shots so powerful and painful they could change the course of a fight, and the ambitions of an opponent, in an instant. He hit, they stayed hit. His intentions were simple and violent.
Against Dorticos, however, we witnessed a new side of Gassiev. We witnessed a side of him that was not only necessary in terms of confusing his semifinal foe but might also be important ahead of Saturday’s final. No longer resolutely on the front foot, Gassiev, when opposed by Dorticos, found himself moving and often felt his back against the ropes. He pumped out the jab, only it wasn’t to pave the way for power shots but instead employed to keep Dorticos from setting; to create space for himself to move. Essentially, he boxed. He revealed new layers to his game. He displayed intelligence.
That alone was a breakthrough of sorts, a sign there was more to the 24-year-old than clubbing hooks, brutal body shots and a steely stare. But what elevated this performance, and what makes him a threat to Usyk, was the way Gassiev executed this strategy early before mixing in the heavy stuff, shots he throws effortlessly, down the stretch, when sensing Dorticos was starting to fade. He boxed, then he brawled. The outcome: a stunning knockout in the very last round.
We now know both finalists can do a bit of everything – box, brawl, move, stay put – and it’s this understanding that makes picking a winner so difficult. With every shot available, and thrown correctly, whether from an offensive or defensive position, searching for weaknesses, something to sway us one way or the other, is a bit like detecting flaws in a masterpiece painting. You find yourself nit-picking, looking for things that probably aren’t there. A crease. A smudge. But it’s futile. It’s futile because these two are unbeaten for a reason, and that reason has nothing to do with avoiding challenges, nor because cruiserweight lacks depth. It’s because they are exceptional. In fact, as far as big men go, and this includes the entire heavyweight division, Usyk and Gassiev are about as good as it gets. They’re hefty enough, at six-foot-three and 200lbs to cause damage and drama, and their coordination and all-round technique is far superior to much of what we see in the weight class directly above them. What’s more, along with the other six who initially entered the tournament, they’ve made cruiserweights fashionable
FEAR NO USYK is happy to fight all over the world and this date in Russia will mark the sixth country he has competed in as a professional, after Ukraine, Germany, USA, Poland and Latvia. If he wins, expect him to plot a move to heavyweight where Anthony Joshua remains a target.
GASSIEV, LIKE GOLOVKIN, IS THE VERY EMBODIMENT OF SEEK-ANDDESTROY
for perhaps the first time in the division’s history.
It will be a shame, then, to separate them; a shame for one of these two seemingly perfect cruiserweights to be outed as something other than perfect on Saturday night. But separate them we must, and in a fight of small margins and scant weaknesses, having the final in Russia has to be considered an advantage for Gassiev. Though it shouldn’t, it might be enough to bag him close rounds, and it might – granted, less likely – shake Usyk from his game plan and get him trading when he should be moving.
If that does happen, Gassiev, aroused by a static target, can plant his feet and hit Usyk with much heavier shots than the ones Briedis mustered earlier this year. He can make a dent. Hurt Usyk. Perhaps even stop him.
Then again, it’s Usyk who possesses the higher work rate (he threw a whopping 848 punches against Briedis), and it’s Usyk who blends styles and switches strategy with greater ease and speed. Blessed with an ability to improvise, he can offer something new whenever it’s required, and the fear for Gassiev is that while he is waiting to unload, and he will often wait, Usyk, the more fluid and loose of the two, will be peppering him with punches. Whether long or short, he’ll be awkward, he’ll be relentless, and he’ll be a nuisance.
Offer those looks for 36 minutes and Oleksandr Usyk will also become the proud owner of all four world cruiserweight titles and the Muhammad Ali trophy. The only hope then is that the rest of the world recognise his brilliance.
Interestingly, Usyk and Gassiev aren’t the only two boxers competing for the full quota of world titles on Saturday night. Female welterweights Cecilia Braekhus and Inna Sagaydakovskaya will also box for the right to walk away with WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO belts.
Thirty-six-yearold Braekhus, the champion, is undefeated in 33 fights and has long been considered the best female boxer on the planet. This, incredibly, will mark the Norwegian’s 23rd title defence. The 7-0 (3) Sagaydakovskaya, meanwhile, is a Russian native, so will have plenty of support, and recently stopped Jennifer Retzke to win the WBC interim superwelterweight title. Also on the Moscow card are a couple of interesting supermiddleweight fights for fringe WBA belts. Fedor Chudinov,
known to UK fight fans for losing to George Groves in 2017, meets Nadjib Mohammedi,a
former Nathan Cleverly victim, in a WBA International title affair, while Andrey Sirotkin and Vladimir Shishkin
fight for the right to become WBA Inter-continental champion. THE VERDICT Pretty much as good as it gets in world boxing at the moment.