AOleksandr Usyk walked out of an ambulance at four o’clock on Sunday morning to have his jaw scanned and a possible fracture cleared after a superb performance to beat Tyson Fury to become the No. Controversial heavyweight boxing champion. The cut and swollen skin above his right eye has been stitched up, and he raised his left arm in greeting as he strolled into a crowded room in the basement of Kingdom Arena.
The audience burst into applause because this was no ordinary press conference. Usyk wore a stone-colored T-shirt with boxing gloves printed on the front. Under his right arm he carries a Ukrainian flag and his eldest daughter’s favorite stuffed toy, Eeyore.
“Hello everyone,” he said pleasantly.
Usyk tenderly hung the flag on the back of the chair and placed the toy in front of him. Poor old Eeyore fell face down on the table, looking very depressed. Usyk also seemed suddenly exhausted, letting out a breathless groan as he sat down. In that silent exclamation, all the brutality of his monumental battle with Fury resurfaced.
Fury and Usyk are very different people, although they are a great dance partner in the ring and responded in his own way before 40 minutes. Usyk was still in the hospital when Fury spoke to us in the same room. “We just had a fight,” Fury said in a husky voice. “Did you see my face? He had a broken jaw and just went to the hospital and he was ruined. We’re 12 rounds in. So we’re going to go home, eat some food, drink some beers, and get through it.” Some family time, walking the dog, going to the tip, and me and Frank Warren [his promoter] Will talk about the future.
Deeper emotions welled up in Uski’s heart, but before he burst into tears, he focused on Eeyore. He made sure the little old donkey sat upright again.
First there is the matter of boxing. Was Fury concerned when he was declared the unjustified winner on the second scorecard? “No,” Usyk said, “I’m not worried. I believe I won.
He was asked if he felt his knockout chance had been stolen as the referee gave him a count that lasted more than eight seconds in a memorable ninth round, with only the dangling ropes holding up a shaky fight. Fuli. Usyk’s face morphed into his familiar gap-toothed smile. “I don’t think about it because we have a winner. No knockout, no problem, but 12 rounds is a big show.
Will Fury avoid a rematch in their contract and settle for an easier fight with Anthony Joshua? Usyk started to answer, but the room went dark.
“Oh,” Usyk said confused, then realized someone had accidentally leaned on the light switch. He singled out the culprit, jokingly saying, “Please stop playing.” He continued beyond laughter. “Please, I don’t want to box now because my [training camp] The start date is September 2023.” Usyk started a few months ago. “September, November, December.” His promoter, Alex Krassyuk, politely reminded him that he had forgotten about October. Krasiuk listed the months correctly, holding up a finger for each one.
“Yeah, I worked for nine months,” Usyk agreed, explaining how he missed the birthdays of his three oldest children and the birth of his youngest daughter. “It’s been training, training, training,” Usyk said. “My focus is only on this battle. Now I am happy. I want to go home, go to my church, pray and say: ‘Jesus, thank you’ because for me and my country this is is a huge opportunity.
Usyk then thanked his team and pointed to his savvy old coach Yuri Tkachenko, who once again had the room filled with laughter. He acted like the way Tkashenko drives him and how a disgruntled boxer can go behind his coach’s back.
“For eight months, all he did was talk,” Usyk said of Tkachenko. “Do this. Do this. Do this. Work. Run. Box. Eat. Sleep. Bara, bara, bara, bara. Look, I’m not a kid.” He smiled. “Yuri, you are.” An incredible person. We won.
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Then we arrive at the most important moment. Usyk lost his father just days before he became the heavyweight champion at the 2012 London Olympics. We know he has found it within himself to defeat Fury, a previously undefeated world champion who is six inches taller and two stone heavier than him. Did the dream come back and help him?
“No,” Usyk began, but paused and said, “I miss my dad.” Usyk looked around the room, remembering the dream. “I told my father,” Usyk whispered. “‘Hey listen, you live there…'”
The warrior stretches his arms to the sky, as if reaching into the unknown afterlife. Then Usyk started crying and said to his father again: “I live here. Please, don’t come to me. I love you.”
He tried to smile, but his face scrunched up. “For me, it was sad when my father came to me because I remember my life…”
Briefly, it sounded like he was holding back a laugh. But Usyk kept crying silently. Krasiuk squeezed his shoulder. The same wry smile appeared on Usyk’s scarred face. The last tear slipped from his wounded eye and ran down his cheek. “I know…he’s here,” Usyk said in a staccato voice.
He stood up, crossed his arms in a battle salute, and then glanced down at Eeyore with sparkling eyes. He picked up the stuffed toy, put it under his arm, clasped his hands together, and said a prayer of thanksgiving.
“How do you feel?” someone shouted. “I Feel,” Usyk said, turning an overused word into a stark statement of fact. His knuckles looked broken and bruised, but he smiled when I asked him about Eeyore. To my surprise, he walked Usyk to the ring with the toy still in his arms. “My daughter said, ‘Dad, please take this away. It gives you strength. This is Leeloo,'” he said.
I thought about all the conversations I had with Usyk over the years and how he talked about the war with Russia and the deaths of some of his closest friends. He found the right words to talk about the disaster and how sometimes he felt like he might never joke or dance again.
However, as dawn approached in Riyadh, he made us laugh before we cried. He showed us that there is nothing better than boxing. He had just become the first undisputed world heavyweight champion of this century, but the International Boxing Federation (IBF), one of the four main sanctioning bodies, would soon strip him of the belt because he did not immediately agree to fight with them fights mandatory challenger Filip Hrgovic.
Usyk is a towering figure inside and outside the ring, and he will be more focused on his family and even Lelo than on this deception. When he left, he was exhausted but calm, with the expression on his face that of a man who had faced death and glory and had learned to savor life above all else.
