By: Sean Crose
There’s no doubt that the first bout between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk was the hardest fight of each man’s life. While Usyk walked out of the ring that Saudi Arabian night back in May as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world (the first in ages)after besting Fury, he had to earn that title the hard way. As for Fury, the towering Englishman may not have agreed with the judge’s decision that evening (What losing fighter does after suffering his first loss?) there was no argument that, even if he had walked out of the ring a winner against Usyk, Fury had would still have fought the toughest battle of his life.
Now, with a rematch coming in December, fans and analysts are eager for the two men to get it on again in Saudi Arabia. Part of what makes the rematch so enticing, of course, is the fact the first fight was so close. While Usyk came close to putting Fury away, he wasn’t able to, as Fury once against showed the kind of blood and guts that would have made George Patton proud. What’s more, Fury showed just how effective his own punching could be, as he used it to keep his man at bay for large portions of the fight.
Little wonder then that Usyk isn’t walking into the rematch thinking it will be an easy night’s work. “No, it won’t be easier,” the undefeated champion said to Mail Sport Boxing (via Second’s Out). “I think it will be even more difficult.” When a fighter is at the level Usyk is, there’s an understanding that every opponent will be giving it his all in order to become the boss of the block. “Look,” Usyk says, “I always set myself up for a hard night, never an easy one. I’m expecting the cosmos that will crush me so only my eyes will see what happening. I get pumped for such things.”
When all is said and done, no one will likely ever accuse Usyk of being anything less than completely disciplined throughout his career. Indeed, he’ll likely go down as an athlete who embraced the biggest and most formidable challenges. “I don’t think that it will be easier for me,” he says of the Fury rematch, “but I don’t need it to be easier. Diamonds cannot be found in easy, because they are not there. You cannot succeed without hard work, everything that is given easily does not grow.”