Usyk edges Fury to claim undisputed heavyweight championship
Scores ninth-round knockdown, which is the difference as division is fully unified for first time since Lennox Lewis did it 25 years ago
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A quarter of century had passed since the last time an undisputed heavyweight champion was crowned, but Oleksandr Usyk climbed that mountain in a split decision victory over Tyson Fury by the slimmest of margins on Saturday night in a memorable battle befitting the massive stakes.
Usyk, who got off to a slow start and trailed after the seventh round on all three scorecards, stormed back, as he dropped Fury in the ninth round and pulled out the historic win in a rare fight that matched unbeaten champions in the main event of the “Ring of Fire” pay-per-view card at sold-out Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Judge Manuel Oliver Palomo scored it 115-112 and Mike Fitzgerald 114-113 for Usyk while Craig Metcalfe had it 114-113 for Fury, who would have salvaged a split draw had he not suffered the knockdown. Fight Freaks Unite also had Usyk winning 115-112.
Usyk said at his post-fight news conference that he was not worried he would lose when he heard it was a split decision.
“I believed I won. I do good work, don’t worry,” he said.
Usyk, who was in just his sixth heavyweight fight and now owns two wins over Anthony Joshua and one against Fury, not only retained the WBO, WBA and IBF belts for the third time but he took the lineal and WBC titles from Fury to become the first four-belt undisputed heavyweight champion and the first since Lennox Lewis defeated Evander Holyfield during the three-belt era in Las Vegas on Nov. 13, 1999.
Fittingly, Lewis and Holyfield were both ringside as were other members of boxing’s heavyweight royalty, including Larry Holmes and Usyk’s Ukrainian countryman Wladimir Klitschko, men who were not undisputed champions but nonetheless were dominating lineal champions of their era.
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