Usyk-Fury 2 was a decent fight. It was engaging, but not thrilling. It was a competent contest between two very good fighters where the better man (Usyk) won via three fair judges’ scorecards that tallied a 116-112 score apiece.
What more can be said? Usyk is awesome. Fury couldn’t solve the riddle. Usyk outworked Fury en route to a second straight points victory. That’s it. It was nothing worthy of an entire Notes from the Boxing Underground column. And, sorry, but I’d rather jab shrimp forks into my eyeballs than write a 1,200-word “Usyk is an all-time great” piece. I’ll leave that tedious monkey work to the stooge writers making 5-times my salary as junior publicists.
The bigger story, at least for me, was the media covering the event, increasingly happy working under the boot of an increasingly in-full-control Saudi Arabian authority.
From the lead-in to Usyk-Fury 2, through the actual bout, and far into the aftermath, the boxing media did not hide its willingness to play lapdog to the Saudi overlords holding crumpled dollar bills inside balled fists in front of them. But I have something bigger and better to address the growing pimp/ho vibe in boxing these days slated for next week’s Notes from the Boxing Underground. Stay tuned.
But whorish constitution aside, the media also plays a big role in the Oleksandr Usyk reign and the kind of distortion of reality that continues to ensure boxing remains a niche sport, permanently detached from the mainstream.
One would be naive to overlook the fact that, for as good as Usyk is in the ring, WHO he is plays just as much of a role in the gushing man-love the media showers on him.
He is a quirky, non-threatening, agreeable, deferential Eastern [WHITE] European with an embraceable backstory. He is Gennady Golovkin 2.0,. new and improved-- only he fights and WINS the big ones.
He fits all the criteria of someone the media will fap themselves silly over.
But, as with Golovkin and several other media-adopted Eastern European favorite sons, Usyk doesn’t really move the commercial needle in the West (and not really in the East, either). Despite holding the most prestigious title in all of boxing-- undisputed heavyweight champ-- there are large swaths of the globe where the question of “What do you think of Usyk?” will draw the response of “What’s an Usyk?” (True story...from personal experience in Mexico, with an Uber driver boxing fan).
Usyk is very fortunate to have risen to the top during the power grab of prodigious money mark and Saudi sportswashing figurehead Turki Alalshikh, who has lavished him with unbelievable riches (reportedly, a total of $159 million, guaranteed, for his two Fury bouts), despite sporting a level of marketability that hasn’t even permeated the home Saudi market hosting the two Fury fights (per esteemed boxing scribe Donald McRae).
No matter how much crowd noise is pumped into Kingdom Arena in Riyadh and how much the paid-off media hard-sells all things Saudi like organ grinder monkeys hustling for loose change, the free market always tells the final tale. And, in this case, the final tale is that there’s a definite disconnect between his star power as portrayed by media and the reality of just how big Usyk is.
This doesn’t take away from the fact that Usyk is a great fighter worthy of accolades and, eventually, first-ballot Hall of Fame entry. This is a complex world we live in, and one where it’s totally possible to find a pearl of positivity buried inside a pile of fetid bull shit.
But this cynical detour from the actual fight on Saturday brings us to a larger point.
Whether smothered by greedy, spiteful, short-sighted promoters or propped up by murderous oil-rich monarchies, boxing remains as detached as ever from reality, living in a bubble where we tell each other that non-stars are stars, marginal events are mega-events, and that competent prize fights are all-time classics. We tell each other these lies at the expense of accepting the truth and working towards a better tomorrow.
In what world is empty idolatry, inflated by paid-for media cheerleading for shows that hemorrhage money, at a dead venue, in an indifferent region of the world, on the other side of the planet from where the consumer boxing dollar REALLY matters, good for the sport? For as good as Usyk is, his existence and propagation as a superstar is simply a bubble inside a bubble inside a bubble. Empty calories to fill one’s belly and please the palate, without providing the body any real nourishment. In its own way, it’s just as phony as something like Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson.
We could get good fights, great fights, from Usyk for the rest of his days. He could double-up and triple-up the weight of his resume until the end of his career. And it really wouldn’t mean a damn thing to the sport’s big picture. Nobody’s watching, nobody’s caring, and, so, it really doesn’t matter.
But sometimes empty calories are okay. Sometimes, in boxing, it’s alright to just enjoy something cool, regardless of whether it has any real meaning beyond being cool for you.
Fine.
But when can we start thinking about the big-picture stuff?
Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com