Oleksandr Usyk's masterclass vs. Anthony Joshua should open door to undisputed title bout vs. Tyson Fury

Oleksandr Usyk stood in the pocket for the better part of 36 minutes on Saturday, daring one of the hardest hitting heavyweights in recent times to hit him. Usyk would duck his head, slide his torso to the right or glide a step to his left to evade the bombs being thrown by former champion Anthony Joshua on Saturday in their rematch for the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Usyk’s brilliance isn’t just his defense, which is superb. It’s his overall boxing ability, and he proved that by giving out well more than he absorbed. When he slipped a punch, he inevitably came back with two, three or four of his own.

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He threw an incredible 712 punches at Joshua and landed enough of them to win a split decision to retain his championship. He may have won the fight in the 10th when he put on a master class after being rocked in the ninth by Joshua in Joshua’s best round of the bout.

His performance shouldn’t be sullied by the shameful scorecard turned in by judge Glenn Feldman, who had it 115-113 for Joshua. Even Joshua knew he didn’t win the fight.

When it was over, he grabbed Usyk, embraced him and wrapped Usyk’s Ukrainian flag around both of their shoulders. After the scores were announced — judges Steve Gray and Victor Fesecheko correctly had it for Usyk, 115-113 and 116-112, respectively to nullify Feldman’s bizarre score — Joshua led the crowd in chants of “Hip, hip hooray,” to celebrate Usyk.

Feldman’s score will go down in the annals of the worst stinkers of recent vintage. In 2013, C.J. Ross scored the Floyd Mayweather versus Canelo Alvarez fight a draw, 114-114, when nearly everyone else who saw it gave Mayweather at least eight rounds. In 2017, Adelaide Byrd scored Alvarez’s first fight with Gennadiy Golovkin for Alvarez, 118-110, in a fight most felt Golovkin won.

Feldman’s score is in that infamous class.

But he doesn’t deserve any more time, because Usyk and Joshua did their jobs so brilliantly. Joshua is a giant of a man who has mostly dominated his opposition since he took up boxing in his teens. He won an Olympic gold medal as a super heavyweight in 2012 and then won a version of the heavyweight title in just his 16th fight.

In 2019, he was knocked out by Andy Ruiz Jr. and lost his belts. He regained them six months later in the rematch, but I dare say he fought far better, more bravely and with a more concentrated approach Saturday than he did in decisioning Ruiz and regaining the belts in 2019.

Joshua in the rematch against Ruiz fought cautiously, even timidly, at times. He went into the ring with what appeared to be the sole goal of not getting hit. On Saturday, he went in with the intent to win, and he showed that throughout.

He was outclassed by a better man on Saturday, but that shouldn’t detract from his efforts. He had Usyk in all sorts of trouble in the ninth round, a round in which perhaps the only two active heavyweights he wouldn’t have stopped given what he’d done were Usyk, the guy he was fighting, and Tyson Fury, the WBC heavyweight champion.

Joshua and new trainer Robert Garcia came up with the plan to double up on the jab, fight with flex in his knees and, above all, go to the body. Joshua did all of those things and hit Usyk with some withering body shots that would have taken the life out of anyone else. Usyk was clearly bothered by them, especially in the ninth.

Usyk, though, is a special fighter who may well be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He’s now fought 24 rounds against Joshua, one of the sport’s biggest active punchers, and never hit the canvas. He was hurt maybe once, in that big ninth round.

Usyk isn’t a runner, as some claim anyone who boxes with his or head does. He was in front of Joshua all night, there to be hit, but his understanding of the sport and his ability to set traps kept him safe. He would slip a punch and come back with a three-, four- and even a five-punch combination.

He landed plenty of them, and stung Joshua several times. Usyk was only in his fourth fight as a heavyweight, but he was beating up on Joshua and had him reeling a number of times.

Usyk was defending his country in the Ukraine-Russia war, when he got permission to take the fight. He was visiting injured soldiers who urged him to take the rematch and allow them to handle fighting in the war.

So he did, and it was clear he was inspired by that, bringing joy to his nation in these darkest of times with a war raging and millions of his countrymen displaced by its ravages.

The fight to make now, of course, is the bout with Fury, which would be for the undisputed title. It’s one of the biggest fights that can be made now in boxing.

WBC champion Fury has the only belt Usyk doesn’t hold, but had said he was retired two weeks ago. After Saturday's bout, Fury tweeted, "THE GYPSY KING IS HERE TO STAY!!!" and tagged the WBC Twitter account. The WBC had set an Aug. 26 deadline for Fury to decide if he was going to relinquish his title belt.

Fury is 6-foot-9 and will have six inches on Usyk. He usually fights around 275, so he’ll have about 50 pounds on him. And with an 84-inch reach, he’ll have about a six-inch edge there.

But Usyk proved in two fights against Joshua, another giant heavyweight, that he should never be discounted because of his size. He’s a remarkably talented, hard-nosed guy who uses quickness, guile, cunning, some of the best footwork in boxing and sheer toughness to win again and again when everyone counts him out.

It’s about time to give him his due. If he’s not the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, he’s not very far from the top.