I take Usyk to step on the Gass
IT’S been a great few weeks for sport in Russia, and in Moscow tonight Murat Gassiev and Oleksandr Usyk might just surpass the football with their historic cruiserweight unification bout.
This is the first time in the four-belt era that the WBC, WBA Super, IBF and WBO titles are on the line, and the first time the Muhammad Ali Trophy is handed out to a World Boxing Super Series winner.
It is a terrific match, a 50-50 showdown between two great fighters (above). Usyk is the thinker, very much like Andre Ward in the way he is able to defuse what you are good at.
Gassiev relies more on power and is a very dangerous puncher, knocking out the Cuban slammer Yunier Dorticos in the 10th round to make the final.
Gassiev is trained by Abel Sanchez, the strategist behind Gennady Golovkin. Gassiev likes to get people out early but does not have Golovkin’s all-out, seekand-destroy capability. Though he can box, Gassiev loves a fight and is more effective when guys come on to him. He’s strong and takes a shot. Smarts is the way to beat him and Usyk is as smart as they come. If it comes down to finesse, as I think it might, you have to fancy him.
Sanchez (above) knows this, of course, and will try to set a trap to make him fight the way that suits Gassiev, who is by far the more experienced champion.
This is only Usyk’s 15th bout. Gassiev is walking to the ring for the 27th time, and it’s on his patch.
That might be enough to unsettle the less experienced man. If Usyk is hurried out of his stride and tries to engage he will come a cropper. If Usyk sticks to what he is good, he has enough in his locker to get over the line.
I can see him using his skills, slowing the pace. He doesn’t want this to be the barnburner Gassiev and the Moscow crowd want.
This has been a superb series, with some great fights and deserving of a trophy with Ali’s name on it. And it’s terrific to see the cruiserweight division, too often falling between stools marked heavyweight and light heavy, dominating the schedules this weekend.
It might be that both see their future in the heavyweight division, but the more nights we have like this the less they will need to go up to chase the big bucks.