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The list of the most important sporting events of the outgoing year does not include the first fight between Fury and Usyk. No Saul Alvarez, no fight between Beterbiev and Bivol. The most hyped and discussed events that were in the global trend are the Olympics, including the scandal around the gender of boxer Iman Khelif, as well as Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul - including Mike's naked ass, which he showed to the entire multi-million Netflix audience around the world. The hardest thing for me was reading what people write on social networks who suddenly turned out to be experts on boxing, specifically on Tyson or transgender people.
At first it was even kind of funny, I wrote a couple of lines in one of the social networks - and watched how the algorithms work, who and what is shown in the feed, how people react and most importantly - how sane they are. The madness in this international melting pot was boiling and spilling over. My eyes were popping out of my head from the stupidity that was being voiced. Everyone was an expert, trained, worked out, has an opinion, it turns out we live on a planet of boxers! And I realized the main thing - maybe it's good that the fights of Tyson Fury against Alexander Usyk are not a top event that goes beyond sports. Because humanity as a conditionally intelligent species at this stage of its development does not deserve boxing in the mainstream - it needs to be carefully accustomed to this with therapeutic doses. So let the Saudis not try too hard.
Tyson Fury, for example, decided that he doesn't need to do much PR for the fight - and it seems he's saving energy. In fact, he pulled the first part out himself on his energy and charisma - and now Usyk is trying harder. A suit of a hired killer from the Hitman game at a press conference in London, a special outfit sewn by friends for an open training session, a whole ensemble of musicians with him...
And Fury is focused, businesslike, promises pain, violence and his victory by knockout. Usyk, of course, does not take these promises seriously. And we clearly understand that this time, not everything should change specifically. The second fight is a continuation of the first, with a similar pattern, simply because the new champion will not change his style, one way or another, he built all the fights in a similar way. And the Briton will not particularly change what also worked - in the first half against Usyk, he was quite effective, and even after a knockdown he won rounds, and on the card of one of the judges - and the entire fight. There are questions about the slowed legs in the second half of the fight, was it because of Usyk's actions, or because Fury was poorly prepared. Knockdown? Yes, Tyson fell more than once in his career. Actually, only the knockdown and that lousy round prevent him from declaring his victory and convincingly telling that the Ukrainian lost the first fight. Although no, it doesn’t interfere - there was a line “they gave him the victory because his country is at war.”
We have a choice of one of two options. Either Tyson was deceiving himself before the first fight, was not 100 or 120% ready and continues to deceive everyone - including himself, and for lying to yourself you usually pay the most, karma in the person of Usyk is a ruthless bastard. Or we really will see another Fury, and then he is pure Loki, a god from Scandinavian mythology, a trickster with a strange sense of humor and wild ideas, a demonic-comic antagonist of a cultural hero, endowed with the features of a rogue and a mischief-maker.
And maybe the fight in May was lost by him out of stupidity, for the sake of a joke - or even as part of long-term plans? Unfortunately, no. It turned out later that Tyson's wife had a miscarriage right before the fight, and he found out about the loss of the child - partly by phone, partly by guessing, and therefore I do not think that he could have performed the way he did - with his head in the right place. There are extraordinary cases when a person who has survived a tragedy discovers new abilities in himself, but no, not here. This is not a comic book.
And what about the "cultural hero"? I'm inclined to think that Oleksandr Usyk is unlikely to surprise us with anything. He is defiantly normal most of the time, and in the ring he eats up his opponents time after time with one technique - constantly raising the stakes, increasing the tempo, imposing an uncomfortable rhythm of action - draining their strength, making them tired, losing control and missing. The system is effective, but it can be hacked. Tyson Fury almost succeeded last time.
I am sure there are many people who, reading this now, disagree with me. For them, intellectual style, technical boxing and beauty in motion are above all else, they always root for Lomachenko, Bivol and Usyk, and they treat everything different from this with poorly concealed contempt. And the square and awkward King of the Gypsies with his freakish manners and the figure of an overgrown mutant simply should not exist in their eyes. I will not dissuade them.
Just a reminder that even stranger things happen. Last week, the undisputed favorite Jaime Munguia lost by KNOCKOUT to little-known underdog Bruno Surace, a man without a single significant fight, with only 4 early wins. As they say, nothing foreshadowed it. And the god Loki, for example, once became pregnant, becoming a mare, and carried the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. Nothing foreshadowed it either. Now think about it!
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