From Fury and Joshua to Dubois and Bellew, Oleksandr Usyk has fought the best of the very best – but did you know he now also faces undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev?
Not only have Usyk and Beterbiev clashed three times on the amateur scene, but footage of the light heavyweight champion dropping the Ukrainian has revealed a possible route to victory for Tyson Fury.
Photo credits should be JACK GUEZ/AFP/GettyImages
Oleksandr Usyk vs. Artur Beterbiev shows potential route to victory for Tyson Fury
If 'The Gypsy King' wants to get revenge on Oleksandr Usyk this weekend, he will have to draw on every minute of experience from his career in the ring, and every frame of video footage from Usyk's previous fights.
The Ukrainian may be undefeated as a professional, but 'The Cat' suffered fifteen defeats as an amateur, including one of three fights against now undisputed light heavyweight champion, Artur Beterbiev.
Their original clash took place in 2007, with Beterbiev picking up the decision win, before Usyk got his revenge; first in the quarter-finals of the 2011 Amateur Boxing Championships, and then a second time at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
With Usyk vs Fury 2 on the horizon, the second fight with Beterbiev is the most important here.
While Usyk managed to get his hand up thanks to his patented superior footwork and ring IQ, the Ukrainian was dropped badly in the third round when Beterbiev landed a stunning right hook to the body.
Getting dropped with a body shot from Beterbiev is certainly nothing to be ashamed of.
But when you watch video footage of other dangerous moments in Usyk's career, it's clear he's vulnerable to those kinds of blows.
There's even an argument that over the course of his illustrious career, Usyk has been injured far more by body shots than by blows to the head.
About two years ago, YouTube account 'Fighter Channel 2' uploaded a short compilation of every time cameras had captured Usyk being taken down or wobbled – of the seven examples shown, the first four are all body shots.
More recently, Daniel 'Dynamite' Dubois managed to force Usyk to the canvas during their 2023 showdown in Poland; however, that blow was deemed to have landed just below the beltline, with Dubois' bid to change the result to a No Contest rejected by the WBA.
Tyson Fury has demonstrated his KO power on numerous occasions, and fans would do well to remember when he dropped Deontay Wilder with a nasty body shot in the fifth round of their own rematch in 2020.
Speaking via Boxing Media earlier this week, promoter Frank Warren revealed what he wants and doesn't want to see from 'The Gypsy King' as he hunts for victory in Riyadh.
“I don't want to see the showboating… I want to see him focused, I want to see what he did in rounds three through seven in the [first] fight, where he was very much on top and controlling the fight with his jab – that's what I want to see. And he is capable of that.”
“Definitely, in that seventh round, he [Usyk] staggered back to the corner, but it wasn't to be… He must be very focused and [on it] 100% of the time… He has [finish] in his head, there's no doubt about that.”
Can Tyson Fury stop Oleksandr Usyk? Can he do that with a body shot? Find out on December 21.
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