What’s Next For Oleksandr Usyk?

What’s Next For Oleksandr Usyk?

By Gary Kittilsen

Oleksandr Uysk walked into the Olimpiysky Sports Complex in Moscow and dazzled the capacity crowd putting on a sensational performance and dominating the hometown hero, Murat Gassiev, round in and round out for 12 rounds and captured the Muhammad Ali Trophy, as well as unifying all for major cruiserweight straps.

Usyk’s display of hand speed, combination punching, and footwork was nothing short of spectacular of what was anticipated to be a 50/50 type of fight, turned out to be anything but that. Throwing a near shutout losing just one round on two of three cards and winning every single round on the third card.

Usyk landed 252 total punches compared to just 91 by Gassiev and threw three-times as many punches 939-313 according to Compu Box numbers. The action in the ring was as one-sided as the numbers suggested as Uysk became the first undisputed cruiserweight champion since Evander Holyfield nearly 20 years ago and became the first ever cruiserweight champion to hold all four major belts as the WBO was not recognized when Holyfield unified the other three belts. He also became only the fourth fighter to unify all four major titles in any weight class, middleweight champions Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor accomplished this as did former junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford who unified all four belts in that weight class just last year.

Usky has cemented himself as the undisputed champion of the cruiserweight division, he has established himself as one of the premier pounds for pound fighters in the world currently as well as an all-time great cruiserweight. But, whats next for the newly minted undisputed cruiserweight champ? Well just like fellow countrymen Vasyl Lomachenko, perhaps the next logical move is to jump up in weight classes. There is nothing else left for Usyk to accomplish at his current division and the prize in the heavyweight division is much more lucrative. The two current heavyweight champions Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua would both represent most likely the biggest payday of Usyk’s career and would be a legacy-making fight. Holyfield was able to become undisputed heavyweight champ after unifying all the cruiserweight straps, could Usyk follow suit?

The good news for Usyk is that he is a massively big and strong cruiserweight, according to the WBC Usyk weight in at 208.7 pounds just seven days prior to the fight suggesting he is likely cutting quite a bit of weight to make the 200 pound weight limit. Which means more than likely he won’t be at much of a weight disadvantage against WBC champion Deontay Wilder who weighed in at only 214 pounds for his most recent title defense against Luis Ortiz.

In addition, Usyk showed a very sturdy chin in standing up to some of the hardest hitting cruiserweights and displayed tremendous endurance in keeping up such a high punch output for all twelve rounds. Combine this with his high level of skill and hand speed he actually matches up quite nicely with Wilder. The other belts in the heavyweight division are all held by Anthony Joshua, who because of his size would present a much greater challenge. Joshua weighed 242 pounds in his last outing against Joseph Parker and tipped the scales at 254 in the fight prior to that against Carlos Takam. Usyk would likely be giving up somewhere in the region of 30-40 pounds against Joshua. That would certainly be a lot to overcome if Usyk did indeed decide to make the move to heavyweight.

Joshua, despite his massive size, is highly athletic and skilled heavyweight, Uysk would have to turn in a brilliant performance of footwork and hand speed to overcome such a drastic size disadvantage.