MMA Fighting - Fury vs. Usyk Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Oleksandr Usyk's Spectacular Win Over Tyson Fury

Episode Date: May 19, 2024

Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Eric Jackman as they react to Oleksandr Usyk's victory over Tyson Fury in an instant classic to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian

in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Those are the victory horns, ladies and gentlemen.

And they sound for one man, but really, they sound for us all, because we were the winners. Anybody who watched Tyson Fury versus Alexander Usick over those 12 rounds, we are the winners. We are the lucky ones. But in the end, undisputed is now spelled USYK, Alexander Usik. The undisputed heavyweight champion of the world earns a split decision win against Tyson Fury in an absolutely incredible battle.

And we are here to react to it right now here on the NBA fight. YouTube channel. I am Mike Haken joining me probably equally as giddy, if not more so. My good friend New York, Rick. He is here. I mean, New York, Rick.

Alexander Oussick goes on and does the damn thing. Your immediate thoughts right out the gate. He freaking did it. Like, I just, he freaking did it. He freaking did it. David Slade Goliath.

Like, it's absolutely incredible what this man has been able to do as a cruiser weight and then coming up to heavyweight and beating what many considered the best heavyweight of our era. He's beaten Joshua. He's beating Fury.

Like, the dude is, he's just magical. He's just absolutely incredible. And to do this all on the back of, you know, coming from a country that's at war right now, like, what more can you say about Usik? One of the all-time great boxers. Like, certainly, I think, you know, more to be done at heavyweight to kind of cement that legacy there. But if you combine the weight classes and just think about him skill for skill, like one

of the all-time greats. Just incredible. What a performance, man. Freaking, I mean, the whole fight was unbelievable. Just the pot, like, as soon as the rap performance ended, like, things just got turned up to a billion. That walkouts were incredible. Everything about it.

Buffers introduction, like, he was on it. Everything about it was great. And then the fight started. And Ussick's like so serious. He's got that incredible mustache. Fury's kind of playing around a little bit. And the first couple rounds are just super, super close. but you felt like Ussick was getting real comfortable in there

and Fury just hadn't really found his footing. And then towards the end of the third round, you started to see the momentum switch towards Tyson Fury, even if we scored the third for Uc, which I wouldn't complain. And then four, five, six, seven. It was Tyson Fury all day long. Usick starts to turn it on an eight and then round nine,

the tides completely turn because Alexander Usek hurts Tyson Fury badly has him up against the ropes. The ropes are literally holding Tyson Fury's frame up on a couple of different occasions. Called the knockdown, referee counts, Fury's okay, and then as soon as the count ends, so does the round, the bell rings, and he's saved by the bell,

and then the final three rounds just sort of add to the just incredible theater of this fight. So right out the gate, there are a couple other burning questions about this fight, but how did you score it? Did the judges get it right in your opinion? Yeah, I had it 114, 113 Ussick. I gave rounds three through seven,

and 12 to Tyson Fury and I gave the rest to Usik with the 108 for the knockdown. So that's how I had it. 114, 113, Alexander Usik. Yeah, I didn't know where the cards are gonna go because I saw people saying Usik was up around and I basically kind of got to the point

where it's like anything from Fury up two rounds to Usick up two rounds, all those are in play. Like I feel like all those cards are in play. Could have gotten a draw. Everything was in play. But in the end, I do think, the judges got it. The right man won.

Even the Fury scorecard I have no issue with because just some of those rounds are just razor, razor close. But one of the big questions coming out of this was, was, I don't think there would be controversy in the cards. Was there controversy in round nine? Should that fight have been stopped?

Because a lot of people felt that perhaps Fury did get saved by the bell. But if it's not undisputed title fight, referee probably steps in and calls that one. Did the ref do it right and allowed this fight to continue? Yeah, had absolutely no issue with that being called the knockdown. You know, seeing a lot of chatter about this. But to me, for one, yes, this is, you know, an undisputed heavyweight championship, something that hasn't happened in 25 years.

I'm okay with giving Tyson Fury the opportunity to fight back into it. And to his credit, did, right? Like, certainly I didn't have him winning the majority of the rounds after that. In fact, I only had him winning one and it was the 12th. But clearly he was still boxing. He was still in that fight. and still competitive. So the right call, in my opinion, could it have been a stoppage?

I guess you can make an argument for it. I'm okay with it ultimately being a knockdown. If boxing had the Baba O'Reilly video like UFC events do, that ninth round, that moment, that's a Bobbo O'Reilly moment. Like that's a game-changing, sport-changing moment by Alexander Usik, just out of nowhere. It was just freaking wild. Our Slack channel was just blowing up with just incredible, oh my God, all capital letters.

It was just sensational stuff. So another question. It just came from absolutely nowhere. It seemed like, you know, from rounds three through seven, which I scored for Fury, the uppercuts were landing. The jab was sturdy. He was keeping Usik away. The momentum had shifted where Usik was impressing and Tyson Fury was the one controlling the pace.

That outcome, the idea that like he's the one to rock Tyson as opposed to the other way around. just like wasn't something I could have foreseen coming. And especially after how Fury had looked in rounds three through seven. So just incredible, man. Like, Ussick is, I'm out of words to say about the man. Like, he's just absolutely incredible. Do you think Tyson played around too much in there? I don't think it affected him too much, but I see a lot of that,

that, you know, Tyson's kind of playing around like he would do. Like maybe he should have done in the Francis fight, but he didn't even play around that much with Francis, if that makes sense. I'd almost think that. I'd almost think the opposite, right? Like, that's Tyson when he's kind of like in his, in his bag, when he's flowing and when he's doing his thing. Like, that's how he fights.

And so I'd almost think the Inganu fight where he's more serious and just kind of looking a little bit lost, I still can't really quite explain what happened in that fight, is the odd version of Tyson, is the aberration. And this version, like, look, he got hit a few good times. Sometimes when he's really hurt, he likes to pretend he's not. and sometimes he's just playing around and, you know, mugging up for the crowd. So,

no, I think that's exactly what Tyson does when he's most comfortable. So I thought that was, that was not out of the ordinary and didn't think that that was like what cost him the fight. Getting absolutely rocked is what cost them the fight. I think it added to all the pomp and circumstance surrounding it. Oh, yeah.

Him kind of playing around like that just added to it. It was the perfect time for that date, that fight, everything about it. It was just, it was just so good. It's, there's very few times where you watch a, you know, we hype up a boxing match and like some weirdness happens, but that you just immediately want to go watch it again. And this is one of those fights. I want to go back as soon as we're done here. I can't because the UFC's on, but I want to go watch it again. Like I was that thrilled with how this all played out. It's just, it's just such a memorable fight. So let me ask you this,

New York, Rick. And I know it with MMA and the UFC were become, Prisoners of the moment. It's recency bias. We play that boxing. I don't know if we feel the same weight of things in the immediate aftermath. Is Hul-Aug-U-Suk the best fighter in the world right now, pound for pound? See the best boxer in the world right now or still more work to do with the NUA's and some of the other guys. Yeah, we had this debate heading into it in the preview show for this fight.

And I said that I think Ussick's going to remain number three in my book. currently I've got Crawford and Inouay ahead of him. I think he still remains there just because like again, in most of these pound for pound rankings, Tyson Fury isn't ranked, right? When you think about somebody like Terrence Crawford who beat Errol Spence, who was another top pound for pound fighter,

that impact is going to be felt for a long time until something kind of takes away from Terran to shine and I don't see that happening anytime soon. And in a way, it's just been absolutely demolishing people. So I would love it, I would love it, but I do think the two people ahead of him in most people's books, certainly I think, I believe somebody on the preview show had Canello ahead of even Ussick. I think probably Ussick is now comfortably number three. I don't see him passing Crawford or in a way.

Could there be an argument? Certainly. Like, as I said, I consider Tyson the best heavyweight of this generation. Maybe that will soon change to Usoc. But I think he'll be number three. He's still going to be three in my book, but not because he's not worthy. Let's put it that way. Like this is 1A, 1B, 1C type situation.

Like he is absolutely worthy of a title like that. Terence Crawford's reaction to the fight on Twitter, man, y'all better put some respect on Ussick, man. He definitely a candidate for number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. I'm no hater. He beat the man that beat the man in a bigger division, giving what he's already done, loot brother class it's a from from bud crawford it's a one a one b one c type of thing like these dudes are just that good like it's hard it's it's really difficult it would be semantical at this point like if if anybody's making an argument for one of the other it's because they're trying to make

an argument for one of the other you can't begrudge somebody for having a different fighter uh on top of the on top of the pound for pound list because those guys are all really worthy and really deserving. Like absolutely incredible performance and certainly I wouldn't be surprised to see many people having him higher. Yeah. This is not a conversation that should result in yelling and screaming. This should be a conversation and yeah, he's really good. You might be right. These three are amazing. And then you throw Canello in there and he's freaking incredible too. Like it's just like the quality of boxing that we've got right now is next level. Remember when everyone said boxing was dead like three years ago? Yeah. So it's so.

He's dead. Yeah, get the hell out of here. Are you kidding me? This is so good. This was so damn good. And we already know this. By the way, if you guys weren't aware of this, if you're sort of newer boxing fans more on the casual side,

Alexander Usik is the undisputed champion for two weeks. And then he will no longer be the undisputed champion because he's going to get stripped to one of the belts because boxing is kind of dumb like that. We think, we think. It seems like it will go that way. It's what the IBF is saying. So it's not a foregone conclusion yet, but it has been like projected.

It has been forecasted. The vibes are out there that this will be a short-lived undisputed reign and then there will be a vacated title because of the fact that Ussick, and it's important to know why, because of the fact that Ussick and Fury have a rematch clause. So it would likely be enacted by Fury and they'll be fighting again, I believe it's October. And so the IBF is interested in moving that belt along. Now, why, after we get the first undisputed? disputed heavyweight champion in 25 years, would that be the case? And why would we want to do that? I don't know.

But that's what it is. The governing bodies are going to do what the governing bodies are going to do. But for two weeks, you get to celebrate this and enjoy this. And shout out to Usik. Yeah, five months later, they're going to do it again. And it's going to be even bigger than this. I was so fascinated coming in. I am a million times more fascinated now.

Like if Tyson Fury had won, I still would be interested and I would still be curious to see the adjustments Usik could make. But now that Usik went out there and just did what he did today, I mean, I don't know if there's another fight that I'm more interested in right now, like across the board. Like I just cannot wait to see what Tyson Fury can do and try to get that one back. And then we're going to run it back a third time, which is going to be incredible too. I don't, I'm so excited for the rematch more so because Fury lost this fight. a hundred times, and I would say this fight was more about the unknowns, right? Tyson Fury is coming off a piss poor performance against Francis and Ganu. Like, I love that that moment happened for Francis and Ganu.

That was the worst version of Tyson Fury we've ever seen by a million miles. He just did not look good in that fight. And so I think that had a lot of people wondering, like, what Tyson Fury is going to show up? Is he still committed to this? Can he still reach that level that he's been able to reach in the past? I think we've answered that, right? If you think about rounds three through seven and you look at what he was able to do against a very aggressive Ussick, you can see how Tyson Fury wins this fight, right? And there will be some who have scored it for Tyson Fury.

I believe Super Producer Casey did. And so you think about that fight and you say, now I know, Tyson Fury can compete with Alexander Usik. I guess a lot of people will be wondering the opposite question. And I think that's the other unknown was, is Ussick going to be able to overcome Tyson Fury size? And now we know the answer. We know the answer to that question as well. So now we're heading into the rematch with both the unknowns or kind of the most significant unknowns answered, which is that Fury is still a top heavyweight and Usik can overcome Tyson Fury size.

And now we just get to run back one of the best fights of the year. It's for potentially many, many belts, not undisputed, but many, many belts and bragging rights. And also a potential date with Anthony Joshua on the line for potentially Tyson Fury. Ussick, I think, would be a harder sell for it. But honestly, looking the way he looks, and then Joshua, you know, having really, like, picked up some major wins since the Ussick fights, I don't think it's off the table.

So a lot on the line in the rematch, but also I think a lot of the unknowns answered, and now we just get to enjoy two of the top heavyweights at their absolute best. God, I can't wait for October. Man, that's going to be incredible. Very excited. Let's bring in Pruez your extraordinary E.K.C. Liden,

and then we'll answer some questions. Casey, you scored this one for Tysafuri. I feel like we were kind of on the same page on a lot of the rounds. I do feel like Ussick sort of edged it out, but I have no complaints about you scoring Tysofury at all. Oh, there's the cards. Okay. I haven't seen this yet.

Neither have I. Yeah, so I kind of gave it a peek already. So the, it's not too easy to read, sorry, but I mean, I'll make it a bigger for you guys. There we go. Yeah. So the middle scorecard is the one is the judge that gave it. to Fury. And actually, everything's identical on my scorecard and that guy's scorecard except for

round 10 and 11. I had it switched. I gave round 10 to Fury and round 11 to Usek. But all three judges gave round 10 to Usoc. And on round for around 11, it looks like two judges gave it for Ussk. And I also gave it to Usek. But so, but my total score was the same. the judge in the middle.

But man, but so many of these rounds were just really close. They just were really close. Just round. Round two was the one that I knew right off the bat was going to be a tough one to score. I also thought round seven was going to be tougher to score, but it seems like it was unanimous for Fury unless my eyes are deceiving me because that felt like a very close round as well. The later rounds, obviously the activity's waning, right?

They've been through such a war. The volume goes down and all of a sudden it gets harder to score. so I completely understand these scorecards. And to Mike's earlier point, like, this all makes sense. None of these, I'm not looking at any of these cards and going, like, what the hell happened here, you know? Yeah. Yeah, me too. Like there was, and I was like, nobody said anything.

I was like, what are you watching? Everyone was like, okay, okay, I can see that. That's, I think that's kind of, like, it's not a robbery. It was just a heck of a close fight that somebody had the one. Actually, someone didn't have to one. It could have been to draw. But somebody won, that's all. and I look forward to the rematch.

That's really, I look forward to the rematch. Can I ask you guys something? So this is my ranking, and I've said this a few times, but I think it's worth repeating today because I stand by it and it tends to prove me correct most of the time. Or at least like, this is my personal feeling. Let's see if you guys identify with it. Best boxing fights are the number one thing in combat sports for me.

I'm going to only compare boxing and MMA because those are the most prominent and most dominant that most of the people watching this are probably watching and we watch. High level best boxing fights. High level MMA fights. Mid-level MMA fights. Low-level M-M-A fights. Mid-level boxing, low-level boxing. That's my tier.

That's my hierarchy. I love M-M-A. I will watch the worst M-M-A fight before I'll watch like a mid-boxing fight or a low-level boxing fight. But the absolute best boxing, I don't get. that same feeling from MMA. It's just the stories that you can tell across 12 rounds or even 10 rounds in some cases, but the stories that you can tell in 12 rounds of fighting are just different than what you can do in three or five. To me, the magnificence of like the ability to get yourself

off the canvas or switch the momentum and the ways that that plays across 12 rounds, the drama and the storytelling in it, it's just unmatched. And the best boxing fights just draw me in a way that the best MMA fights don't. But it's not. It's not. Number two. MMA for me is number two. Yeah, I get like in these big, in these big, super high level, 12-round fights, there are multiple times where we either put it in our little private chat or we said to ourselves, oh, this fight's over, you know, in a way, like, oh, oh, Fury is going to take over. Okay, okay, it was close a couple rounds, but Fury's going to take over.

And then, or you go the other way. Oh, Ousek's going to win. Oh, it's all his fight. And then somehow Fury, Fury wins a couple rounds after the fight arguably could be stopped, you know, in the ninth round or what, yeah, ninth round. You're right. The storylines that high-level boxing can do over 12 rounds is incredible. And to me, the only MMA match that kind of gets into that category was Yerry versus Glover.

But like that's like a ones of a million type of fight. You know, a lot of us consider that the greatest fight ever in terms of five rounds. But and that, why that fight, we love that fight so much is because. the ups and downs. The momentum. The momentum swings are just crazy. Yeah. And in boxing, we just get that more often because these guys are just so good and they're so

they're so highly specialized in this one skill, just with these two fists, that they make adjustments. They make adjustments. And then other people make adjustments. And then pretty soon it's round 12, you know, and yeah, I, I love, this fight was great. On my scorecard, I had the fight entirely up for grabs in the 12th round. I think maybe your score cards. Did you guys score around 12 for Fury?

I did. So I didn't have it up for grabs because I had Fury down to heading into 12. So I gave him 12, but I still had him losing to Usip by one. Okay. So yeah, my score. Yeah, I had the middle guy, like the middle judge. So for me, the 12th round was like, oh my God, this is it. But either way, incredible fight.

A fight. High drama. High expectations. And it delivered, delivered from all aspects. The walkout. I'm glad we talk about the walkouts because a lot of times we get these great walkouts and so much happens in the fight. We kind of forget to talk about that. Dude, that was awesome.

That was just the walkouts were great. The different styles and just maybe maybe that's what's missing from the MMA thing, you know, because, you know, that build. You know, I know, I know we get the build. We get, you know, it's different. I don't know. It's just different. The Pfl tries to do that. The page engine.

Dumee, Dube was awesome. Dunebe's walkout was a good call. Yeah. It's a good call. Doombay is an example of what that can be. But then they're still wearing, you know, uniforms. You know, so there's, you know, it's just, uh, boxing's boxing. I get it.

I totally get what you're saying. It ramps the atmosphere up. Before the fight even starts, you're already more excited. I totally get that. I totally agree with that. And it carries over, yeah. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what?

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That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. By the way, I want to shout out Jed Michoud because on the preview show for this fight, he said, Ussick early, Ussick late. He said that's exactly how this fight's going to play out, and that's exactly how this fight really did play out. It was the middle rounds where Uc sometimes can drop those

and Fury looked like he was on his way to cruising through them. And it was Ucic early. and it was sick late for anybody who scored it, scored it that way and had it for him. So, yeah, shout out to Jed. Nice, nice snipe on that call. Good call. Yeah, I love the rankings that you laid out near Crick.

I completely agree. High level boxing, no one's touching in. Honestly, like, the only, the only MMA fight where I had like the same feeling as like a high level boxing match with like the build, the hype, everything around it, and the fight delivering to the expectations of such a massive fight. the one that always comes to mind is Connor Nate too. Sure.

Agreed. It's up and down, the pageantry, everything about it. It just felt like a big ass boxing fight feels like. You know what I mean? Like it just feels that way. Yuri Glover was incredible, but it wasn't the same cal. Like we didn't look at that fight the same way we looked at Connor Nate or Fury Usik or any of these big boxing matches.

Well, also the stakes, right, of Connor Nate, like that being one of the bigger fights that the UFC can put on. I want to say, like, just to be very clear, right, there's circumstances that create this, right? Boxing having three-minute rounds as opposed to five-minute rounds makes it a sprint, right? Now you're going through these rounds quickly and you're advancing and there's also less time for finishes, right? In MMA, some of these fights, maybe if they were three-minute rounds, could have been exciting and back and forth and the finishes came late in the round. So it's a circumstance thing. I'm not trying to compare the quality of fight or fighter.

I'm trying to just talk about the way that the stories are able to play out and across the 12 rounds and with the three minutes where it's sprint, sprint, sprint, and then all of a sudden it's a quick break and you're back in there and now it's already round five before you can even blink. That is just something that MMA doesn't have. And that's not a good, bad, whatever, just my personal preference. That to me is the best version of kind of combat sports storytelling that we have. But yeah.

Yeah. Incredible night. Love it. All right. Take a few questions from the peeps. because we'll be back here in like an hour and a half again. Pro fights of this rematch is going to be huge. I can't remember.

Did his eminency say they would try to do the rematch in America on the M.A.R. Or was he talking about another fight? Yeah, that was his excellency, Turkey Al-Shake. That was a different fight. This rematch will happen in Saudi Arabia as part of Riyadh season. And October is what they're looking at? October, I think, is the date, yeah. All right.

Hey, maybe Jose might jump on a flight. Who knows? Because, man, can't... Abu Dhabi in October 2 for the UFC, so... I might just keep him there for a little bit. Okay. Should AJ fight Joseph Parker to stay active or stay on the sidelines? Now, this is an interesting question.

If I was AJ, I think they have a fight lined up for AJ. They've said explicitly that AJ is going to fight. If I were AJ, I would try to fight as little. as possible between now and then. Certainly, I think you want to fight to stay sharp, right? You don't want to be sitting on the sidelines so long that by the time you get your shot, it's not going to look good. But I think you want to fight as little as possible.

Don't mind Joseph Parker. Feels dangerous at this point, though. But I mean, like, you know, there's limited options. A lot of these heavy weights are kind of tied up. I think we'll see his potential opponent coming from the five-on-five fight series that is happening in June 1st, I believe. So, yeah, I think we'll see his potential opponent come from that card. But I think you do one and then kind of like see how far you can stretch without feeling

like you're getting rusty. Keep the work going in the gym and then see. It's really going to depend on how that rematch goes in October. And then when they're thinking about and looking at the potential fight between AJ and the winner, again, I think it gets muddied if it's Usek. So that's another interesting. kind of wrinkle. If it's Fury, man, it'd be hard for them not to do the rematch.

Like, is it possible that they skip AJ and AJ and Tyson Fury again for an Ussick Fury trilogy? I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see. But I do think for AJ, you want to limit risk. You want to limit risk because that fight is right there for you. The opportunity of a lifetime is right there for you. So get your work in, but limit risk.

So you're, does AJ try to fight fury no matter what? I don't mind it. I really don't mind it. I do think some of the luster has gone. And to me, AJ feels like a, feels like a championship type of fighter. He feels like he wants to prove his standing in the sport more so than like

chase the money. I think the Francis Angano fight was a product of just availability. Right. Like I think he would have taken a different fight if there was other options available. But because Ussick and Fury were locked up, it kind of left him without a lot of good options. So he strikes me as more of a championship fighter, and I think he will try to chase Usik again,

even if Usoc is the winner. It wouldn't hurt to get some extra money in the bank because that Tyson Fury fight and J. Fight would still be big. But it would lose some luster. It would lose some luster. I think the value of it was really that Fury was this kind of like unslayable guy to counter AJ who had had the ups and downs and the bumps in the road and then kind of comes back and builds himself back to that fight.

So we'll see. I don't think any of those options are bad, nor are they off the table. It's good to be AJ right now as long as you keep winning. He needs to bank that win and then probably kind of assess the situation and see what the landscape looks like. Yeah. I don't, I hate even saying this out loud, but you were talking about AJ needs a, he needs a fight, he needs a safe fight. If Jake Paul defeats Mike. Oh, God.

No, no, no, no. I'm just saying. I might as well sit. You might as well sit on the sideline instead of take that one. You might as well sit down. That would be the most hilarious way to lose an opportunity at a few or not even Oh my God. Yeah.

But many, many belts. That would be the most hilarious way to lose it. Um, before we go back to a couple questions. Uh, how did, on social wise, how did this fight hit in the States? I mean, obviously we're, we're hardcoreers. So we're watching this line. Is this is this Is this shaking up the sports world in the U.S.?

Or is this Or is this just a boxing thing? You know what I'm trying to say? Yeah, I definitely knew. Boxing Twitter is like losing their minds, right? Naturally, as you'd expect on the back of undisputed heavyweight championship And just the nature of how the fight played out. It didn't quite cross over in the way that some of the other ones did.

Even like, you know, obviously when you have a Francis and Ganu, in a fight, it crosses over into the MMA space much cleaner and much easier, right? Because everybody kind of wants to see what Francis is doing, plus the result of those two fights, right? And Gano knocks down Fury gets a close decision in Fury's favor against Joshua gets absolutely sparked really brutally. So those things kind of like blew up and hit the space. I'm not seeing as much reaction from the MMA world. Certainly some of the fighters, you know, are talking about it, but like not in not in a super significant way as we'd see with some of the other things. not even to the degree of like tank versus Ryan Garcia or Garcia versus Haney.

Like those seem to cross over a little bit more even with the attention on Ryan Garcia. So this one feels at the moment more of a boxing story. But naturally, as you'd expect, like the boxing fans are going nuts because of what it was able to do. I'm really kind of curious how this will change the conversation of boxing in the States. And just so kind of got my answer there. The rematch will be interesting, though, to see how if there's going to be, if it's the hype going to fill the same coming into the rematch? Or is it really going to, I don't know, just take over the American sports world too? Like it's kind of taken over the MMA world because apparently there's UFC fights going on.

That's what someone told me. Someone told me that. There's a rumor. There's a rumor. There's a rumor. I've heard about that. Yeah. I've heard about that.

And actually, sorry, that's an old question. and let's go ahead and put it out there. One more question for our, one more question from our commenters. Ooh, who's going to win the rematch? So who did you have coming into this? I had, I had Fury. Yeah, me too. I had Fury too.

I was leaning him, but I had no confidence either way. I think that's the right way. I was leaning Fury, but I wanted to see some things. What I saw in rounds three through seven made me think, okay, this is what I kind of expected, right? when he was when he was outside he was winning he wasn't really going inside as much as i thought the the commentary team kind of noted it like he wasn't using a lot of his weight he wasn't using a lot of his size and when he was on the front foot was when he was really successful he kind of

just like never used that enough to to my um mind in my eye like he was he was good on the outside it seemed like he kind of figured some things out um but once he stopped pressing he became a little bit limited and Usik just turned the gas up just you know the pace was absolutely incredible to be able to do that. I would have to go with Usik in heading into the rematch just because now I know he can hurt him and now I know that that pace is something that's going to bother Tyson Fury. But the same way I leaned Fury, I only lean Usik because if you told me that that Fury is able to do what he did in rounds three through seven across 12 rounds, it wouldn't shock me like the game plan is there, the method is there. If he's able to replicate the success he had in those rounds,

it really frustrated Ussick at that point. He was whiffing. He was swinging at air. So I lean Uc just because I've seen it now, right? I know that he can do that. And I know he has the power to hurt Fury as well. And if he keeps on that gas, he's going to have success. But I wouldn't be shocked. I would not be shocked to see Tyson Fury win the rematch. So it's a small lean just like I had for Fury in the first fight. Yeah, I'm probably, I'd probably lean Fury again, but not by I don't think that's crazy at all. I think we saw like when for the longest, I'll say this, the longest uninterrupted stretch of dominance came from Tyson Fury from rounds

3 through 7. He completely dominated and controlled that. Usik and Fury then kind of like the knockdown was certainly, you know, an off, what's the word? Like an aberration, you know, an outlier. It was an outlier. And then from that. And from then on, from rounds, you know, eight through 12, it was closer.

It was competitive. I thought Ussig did the better work. But Fury was still back in that fight. It wasn't quite the domination. The most dominant stretch of long extended period of domination in that fight came from Tyson Fury. So, yeah, I don't blame anybody who looks at that and goes, yeah, I think there's a path to victory for Tyson. He's also shown, you know, Deonti Wilder, he gets better. He gets better once he kind of has more data.

And so there's a world where Tyson Fury comes out looking better in that rematch. I wouldn't be shocked. That's actually very true. That's very true. Oh, my God. So at the, I don't know if this changes anything. If this is true, and I would have to believe that it is, Tyson Fury went to the Post-Fight press conference.

Here's what he said. Usik has gone to the hospital with a broken jaw. We punched the F out of each other for 12 rounds there. Tyson Fury is saying that Ussack's not the oppressor because he fought Tyson Fury and beat Tyson Fury with a broken freaking jaw. What a freaking gangster! Oh my God, that is insane. Yeah, one of the hardest men walking this earth is U.S.

Like, what more needs to be said. And so, yeah, that would probably factor into it, too. If he's fighting with a broken job, he could probably look better in the rematch too. So there's so much, like, intrigue here. Like, there's just, there's just so many ways to get excited about this potential rematch. Not even potential. It's booked. Or actually, it's not because Tyson Fury has to declare, right?

He has to formally kind of say he wants a rematch. I think we can all assume that he will. But this rematch rules, and it's going to be awesome. And Ussick's a gangster. And Fury's a gangster. Like a lot of guys would have packed up shop after they got knocked around the way he did by Usik. And he didn't. And he doesn't.

That's kind of what he does. He gets absolutely to the brink of extinction. And then he finds a way to hang in the fight. And he's done it time and time again. So like the best two, the best two are going to run it back and we get to watch it. I'm super excited about it. In the moment when Fury got hit hard and he was doing that kind of wobbly dance, I thought he was messing around at first.

I was like, oh, he's just joking around. You know, it was. Yeah, like Anderson and Wydenman. We all thought like, oh, look at Silver being silly. Oh, look at him acting like he's knocked out. Why is you not getting up? Like I'm lying on the ground unconscious. What a silly goose.

Like I had I, I got to say like, obviously, no, he got hit hard. I saw the replay. I was like, good Lord, you got hit hard. But initial viewing, I was like, I thought it was just very playing around. But like, nope. It's a it was amazing. Once once they started going to the left that direction and then they went back to the right, I was like, oh, all right.

He's he's toasted right now because when you're wobbling when you're wobbling back and forth like that, that's that's no bueno. He got new. He got hit with some other shots that were perfect, like clean, super nice shots that, that he ate pretty well. Like it was just a, it was a weird thing because I wouldn't have expected a knockdown in this fight. I would have thought both guys kind of make it the distance without getting knocked down. Great work by Usik. And to Ussk's credit,

it makes sense that he has a broken jaw because some of those upper cuts that fury were landing. I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of those. They were monstrous. Momentum going forward, he just absolutely halted him. And Ussick just ate him. Turns out like probably they did a little bit more damage than we all kind of thought in the moment

because he was able to wear it so well. But just two warriors, man. Two warriors. And I don't like try to use that word a lot because like, you know, it's still combat sports and, you know, we're talking about, there's larger things happening in the world, but like, dude, left it all out there, laid it everything on the line and we got to watch it. Freaking love it.

What a fight. What a fight. Gangston. It was sick. We're good. I think we're good. We'll go watch the UFC. We'll take a little breather and then we'll come back after our, uh, who, Edson Barbosa and

Lauren Murphy yeah I mean I like the fight but good luck following uh which is damn we're damn sure gonna try and those two guys are gonna try uh Adrian Yanez nasty knockout apparently Timber Garimbo just beat Rahimaz and an awful fight because temba actually apologize to people afterwards uh so that means there's only a couple more left so we'll take a little break and then we'll come back to react to that so New York Rick for Casey get a bowl Popcorn or something. We'll see you in a little while. Hey, you got the balloons.

Why can't I get the things to work? No dumb? All right. Next time. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first... There, the last one.

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