Cut the man and the wrapping paper by hand Russ Anber gives Boxing Social his exclusive insights while working on Oleksandr Usyk’s corner during Saturday night’s win over Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia.
Where do we start after that epic night at the Jeddah Superdome?
Well, what about the positives. We must give both Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua special credit for their performances. AJ really showed up. He puts his heart and soul into the fight and really tries to win over a guy in Usyk who is an absolute master craftsman.
Joshua this time imposed himself better than in the previous match. He fought hard and showed his ability to adapt tactics and pick his shots better. With that in mind, I think AJ hit himself unnecessarily after the match.
He fought two great battles against a weight master. Great boxers and athletes never want to lose, but this is not a fight he should look back on with anything but pride. If he loses to someone who isn’t good, or isn’t in the same class as him, that’s fair enough.
Arguably that’s what happened when he lost to Andy Ruiz Jr. But that’s not the case here. He went up against a real boxer, a real professional, a gifted and highly qualified athlete in Usyk.
As for Usyk, I think he’s shown once again that he has a plan for whatever fight or fighter or strategy he comes up with. Just as AJ did well, Usyk has shown he is a high quality artist. He was a clear winner, and he displayed his unbeatable heart and incredible stamina and technical prowess that we all know he possesses.
Which says, I loathe Glenn Feldman’s scorecard, who made Joshua win 115-113. That card is an insult to boxing. A despicable scorecard. Not only did he complete an inning, he went beyond a mile in his assessment of the fight. How the hell can he give Joshua five of the first six rounds? Saying nothing about the fact, he also let AJ into the 12th and final round. Is crazy!
It was a horrifying transcript on his part. If someone doesn’t do their job well in any other walk of life other than boxing, they’ll never work again. When. If this judge is not reprimanded in some way, it is a complete embarrassment.
WBA, IBF and WBO must clearly state that the type of scorecard will not be accepted. To get such a bad scorecard in a fight where the hero, that good, is a real mood killer. And just because the right person still wins the split decision fight, that scoreboard shouldn’t be ignored.
Such a scorecard has only two explanations: you are greedy for money, or you are incompetent. If there is enough integrity in the sport to show that you are not greedy for money, then you are clearly incompetent and unworthy to referee! Either way, such a judge must be disqualified.
That’s all I have to say about that scorecard. I wanted to focus the rest of this column on the fight, so arguably one of the most distinctive features of Usyk’s performance was the way he regrouped after a tough ninth inning to hit back. AJ on the tenth round and sweep that and round 11 and 12 again.
I think people think Usyk is injured more than he actually is in season nine. Sure, he got injured, and AJ got some good hits but he realized AJ was going to try and knew he had to get through the storm and let it pass and that’s what he did. do.
When Usyk returned to the corner late on day 9, he was fine. He is very coherent and sure. He went straight back into the corner without difficulty, I hit him with the ice water hose and he responded wonderfully to all the instructions he received.
He had a monster bomb him for three minutes and he overcame it brilliantly – if he tried to fight back or go back to swing at that point in a round, he If we could have lost, he could have left the door open and entered even more dangerously.
It was a good strategy because I think the effort AJ made took his last breath away. Usyk made him expend as much energy as possible in that round so that instead of giving AJ more momentum, it took away his energy.
Usyk then jumped on top of him in the next round to show he was back in control of the fight and won big the last three innings and that’s what great champions do.
Before the final Usyk was very calm. As you can see on TV, he’s talking to himself in the corner, he’s praying, he’s visualizing what he’s going to do, imagining how the final round will turn out.
After the match, Usyk told me in the ring that his hands, which I wrap, felt perfect and that the gloves I made for him through my Rival company were “the best”. That is very satisfying to hear. He’s really happy and I’m happy about that too.
After the game, things were quite chaotic in the dressing room. A big celebration, the Prince of Saudi Arabia has arrived. The kind of circus you’d expect after the battle. Usyk is in pain, he feels fine and it was a great night and a great feeling to be part of Team Usyk for the 10th time in a row.
Now, all eyes are on a potential fight between Usyk and WBC champion Tyson Fury. I have to say that the respect I had for Fury before last night has almost completely evaporated from his reaction to the fight on social media and the way he talked about Usyk and AJ was disparaged.
As far as I’m concerned it was an attempt by him to steal their thunder and stay relevant and I was disgusted by that. He didn’t have the class to say that way about the two guys who had a fight. He knows better than that! He has talked about respect often in the past! That’s a very bad way of saying for someone who was a WBC champion.
Will the Usyk-Fury war happen? I do not know. I am not 100% convinced to be honest. I have a feeling that Fury might have to pay with it or low-ball Usyk out of it. I don’t think it will be an easy fight to make, that’s for sure.
But make no mistake, if fighting is done Usyk can absolutely win. He is a special warrior.
