MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨 Oleksandr Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua 2 Instant Reaction

Episode Date: August 21, 2022

Brian Campbell has you covered with an instant reaction to Oleksandr Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua 2. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Meet the new boss of the heavyweight division turns out it's the same old boss it's alexander usic in the first defense of his trio of heavyweight titles getting a second victory over anthony joshua this saturday afternoon today jeddah saudi arabia i'm brian campbell one half of your morning combat duo. Giving it instant analysis style, maybe not immediately instant, but on this outstandingly busy day of combat sports, you better believe your voice BC gonna hit you up proper.

OUAJ2, I don't even know if that's a thing, I think I just made it. Look, we thought it could be a lot different from the first fight and anthony joshua bringing in a new trainer and robert garcia a potential new mentality ended up looking a lot like the first fight differences from both in many ways but it goes down to the cards a second straight time this time the official judges scores 115 113 and 115 113 in favor of usic that's of

course seven rounds to five. But then the outlying judge, Glenn Feldman, who actually lives in my town in Connecticut, great guy, 115-113 in favor of Joshua. I didn't see it that way. I had it eight rounds to four, Usyk, 116-112. But in the end, I think Chris Mannix on his own broadcast ended up saying it right, the right guy won.

And that's certainly Usyk in this case. But we want to talk about this fight. I want to talk about what's next. And, of course, Fury's already in. Tyson Fury has already hit the interwebs with his own drunken reaction video. I certainly want to talk about what was bizarre and poor sportsmanship, to say the least, from Anthony Joshua in the post-fight of what went down. But here we go.

Some, what, 10, 11 months removed from their first fight last September. That was in AJ's backyard of England at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But after Usyk pulled the upset, we had a lot of thoughts entering this one. It's Usyk coming off the front lines of battle of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, fighting with purpose. And was Joshua really looking, as he said, to be a must-win, doubling down on his reputation, no different in a lot of ways than what he did in 2019 to Andy Ruiz.

But the major difference between that situation and this turned out to go, I think, even further than just the fact that Alexander Usyk is not only a better fighter than Andy Ruiz, Alexander Usyk is a special generational fighter. We're now finding out still unbeaten, four belt cruiserweight champ, three belt heavyweight champ, ring magazine champ now, pound for pound ranked. It's not just that this was a different opponent, but I think we'll look back at Anthony Joshua's 2019 US debut against Andy Ruiz, late replacement, big time upset, and not look at so much the equilibrium shot that Ruiz hit to pull that upset, but that's an

aberration on AJ's record. And I think he knows that. We all knew that. He got a little chinny in a big moment, but to be fair, there were a lot of other things outside the ring that night that fell Anthony Joshua that I don't even think have been fully reported we remember his father after the fight almost attacking Eddie Hearn there was a lot going on so when it came down to Joshua going back to training camp for that rematch he got in the shape he needed to be yeah he fought safer but he got the win and outboxed Andy Ruiz for the redemption this redemption in the end just wasn't meant to be. And I think some of that is because Alexander Usyk is so special, but I think some of that is also Anthony Joshua kind of went back to the dirt.

And I went back to the drawing board with a little bit of a new style and the nuances that showed under Robert Garcia, as opposed to Rob McCracken, his longtime trainer, you certainly had to like them. He was able to, to operate this fight from middle distance for the most part, which made the threat of his power shots a little bit more. But like I said

off the top, not only is it the same champ coming out that was coming in, these 12 rounds didn't look oh so differently from the 12th rounds for the first time around. Even though AJ made some good adjustments, he didn't make the most important around. Even though AJ made some good adjustments, he didn't make the most important adjustment. That's acting and behaving like the bigger man in terms of using his size, in terms of leaning on Usyk, almost getting a little bit dirty, just doing anything to use the physicality.

That wasn't there. And I think worse for AJ, what was the big narrative from the first fight? You tried to outbox the boxer. You tried to outsmart the technician. He kind of tried that a second time around. Yes, it was more of a focus to the body, and it was a big part of the narrative,

including that key sequence in rounds eight and nine when AJ looked like he had Usyk for the first and only time in this series, really, really close to succumbing, to taking a knee, to getting hurt, to gassing potentially. So even though you give him credit for the body attack, in the end, he just didn't have the confidence or the execution to beat a fighter who's better than him at the end of the day. And that's the ultimate difference between the two fight series with Ruiz and this one.

AJ was always better than Ruiz. This time around, he was chasing something, trying to win a decision against a special heavyweight boxer of this era, a generational talent in there who can belie the size of this era, the super heavyweight era. And at 6'3", use the footwork, use the smarts, use the head movement. Can he do that against guys like Ruiz? Yes, because AJ is more talented than I think his critics have ever given that credit. I think Rafe Bartholomew, my old podcast partner in boxing and occasional morning combat, you know, correspondent, fill in, what have you.

I think you said it great, the best to me this week in our dms with with some of our favorite boxing fans that we do aj might be b plus in almost every category across the board and you know except for maybe having a minus in power but unfortunately in some of those key intangible categories he's more of a c minus whether that's chin punch you know know, recoverability. And also let's not forget it. There is levels to this Tyson Fury, Alexander Usyk. They are proving that they are on just another level in this modern heavyweight era. You know, their amateur backgrounds comparative to AJ who yes, won a gold medal in 2012, the same year Usyk did, although he did that super heavyweight, but he didn't have that same longevity in the amateur system. Came to the sport late, was always sort of raw and learning on the job.

There was an aberration against Andy Ruiz and Anthony John Sua fixed the issue. There was going to be no fixing the issue against somebody who at the end was this much technically better than him. And, you know, of course, Usyk needed those other elements, the chin, the daringness to pull this off a second time against a fighter so much bigger and stronger than him. But I really have to question Anthony Joshua's game plan. And I think that's ultimately the frustration slash embarrassment that fueled what was a bizarre, as I mentioned, post-fight speech in which AJ initially left the ring after the decision loss comes running back in almost looks like he had dust-ups with fans and then takes the flag off of Usyk's shoulders commandeers

the microphone you know drunken uncle at a wedding type situation almost uh Forrest Griffin if you in UFC terms in the Tito Ortiz uh retirement match just commandeering the microphone and stealing the moment it was disrespectful it was a bit embarrassing and I think moment. It was disrespectful. It was a bit embarrassing. And I think for AJ, he was embarrassed because as he said himself in the sort of backhanded compliments, he was giving Usyk on the mic. He came in with no stones unturned, got the new trainer, was willing to adapt the style to a certain degree. Obviously you saw physically ripped up, came in ready to go 12 rounds. But this is the difference of who AJ is compared to how special Fury and Usyk now are in this heavyweight history, but particularly this era.

Joshua, as Rafe said, being sort of B-plus across the board, has been enough to beat other heavyweights who have key major flaws. Guys that are good enough, durable enough, but maybe aren't technically good enough. And AJ, who has grown in those areas, can outbox, uses athleticism, uses smarts. He is a smart boxer.

But when you get somebody on this A, A-plus level, who either doesn't have flaws or was able to mask them and hide them with his style of daringness, head movement. You can't beat these guys this way. The end of the day, if Anthony Joshua wasn't willing to come in here and sell out to the idea of not just cutting off the ring and attacking the body, not just being the bigger man in clinch situations, leaning, being a threat, being dirty, but show you with the intention, which is a word I bring up a lot, I dirty, but show you with the intention,

which is a word I bring up a lot, I know, but the intention that says I'm going in here and I'm willing to lose it all in the biggest way possible to win it all in the biggest way possible. I think AJ, in the end, had too much respect for his own game and his ability to alter things and essentially flip the script on the decision. He lost a close but competitive decision in the first fight. It was a little bit closer this time,

but his improvements weren't enough to have an argument that he won despite Glenn Feldman's scorecard. I mean, look, it was close enough. I had an eight rounds to four. Could you have finagled a couple of the close rounds and now my card given AJ enough to be 7-5 or even a draw? You could have, but none of those scores would have told the story of the fight, which isn't always the same thing.

You can have a fight that tells you one guy won 7-5, but won those rounds so much more dominant. And as a whole, of course, that guy won the fight. I think in both of these first two fights, you look at the fight without scoring it, you go, that guy won the fight, and that's Alexander Usyk. And I think that's the pill that AJ has to swallow. That's why maybe that embarrassing situation came out where he has no more excuses. He thought he can outbox this guy or at least stay close enough with that new style and land a big shot late. Look, he came close.

Rounds eight and nine were a testament to who Alexander Usyk really was, really is, because he's not perfect. He's not a flawless heavyweight. We know about the size differences, meaning he's just about as small as you can be in the super heavyweight era without being a big puncher to have success here at heavyweight against these other super heavyweights, 6'6", Jack Joshua, 6'9", Fury, which we're going to get into, 6'7", Deontay Wilder, even like Luis Ortiz, 6'5".

I mean, this is a super era you're going to have to to beat usic in these fights maybe unless you're tyson fury who seems to be the unicorn of unicorns you're gonna have to hurt him and try to expose the fact that even though usic is tough he doesn't seem to have a chin that can't be cracked he doesn't seem to have you know he doesn't have fight ending power. This is still AJ trying to outbox the, you know, one of the best boxers in history in this division. And I think we're getting to a point for Usyk now where it's not hyperbole to say those things.

And this is Anthony Joshua realizing in that moment that his best wasn't good enough because that probably for him was the best he can do in terms of taking the foundation, which again, the first fight didn't get dominated. He lost a close of taking the foundation, which again, the first fight, he didn't get dominated. He lost a close, but competitive fight,

but clear, close, clear, but competitive, right? Like close enough, but you knew who won. And I think he thought it was just going to be a couple of slight

adjustments. And Oh, by the way, again, rounds eight and nine, where AJ did come on, you know, maybe he was one or two punches away from really putting Usyk in peril,

but he couldn't get them there. And down the stretch, I didn't see in the championship rounds and AJ who was willing to risk it all. And I think some of that comes down to some of those odd statements. He said afterwards, when he's talking to the mic going, you know, fuck, if this guy beat me, when I've had this performance and I have this preparation,

he might really be the best. And that's sort of a somewhat backhanded compliment. Again, he took the flag. I mean, this is Usyk's moment. This is Ukraine's moment. And AJ take commandeers the flag and had to have Usyk grab it back. But then you hear AJ saying, essentially, I'm not a 12 round fighter. I'm bigger. I'm big. You're right, AJ. Only you tried to box like a 12-round fighter. When you're B-plus in most categories, like Rafe said, which I agree with that. I think AJ is. Again, that's good enough to beat most heavyweights in this era because most heavyweights in this era are flawed. This is not the heavyweight run of the 70s, 90s, or time before that where

there's a boxing gin on every corner in every city and as Bert Sugar would say you know the the best American heavyweights today are playing linebacker for the Ravens which is you know a somewhat dated 20 years ago reference but 40 50 years ago the best American heavyweights of the day would have been fighting in American boxing they're not anymore you can beat a lot of these guys with B plus efforts in every category, but the categories that make you sit great, he's a plus in. So the thing about AJ and the thing about our want for him to risk it all in this moment, because this is maybe outside of fury, the only opponent that would put them in a situation to have to do that, to risk the knockout, to land the big punches.

AJ, you know, I can say he wasn't willing, but I don't think he can do that type of pace for 12 rounds. In fact, I know he can't. He's very muscular. That's a big frame he carries around, 245 pounds. We've seen him succumb in moments of sort of gassing out. You know, that probably is what led to the bad moments against Klitschko when he got dropped.

But, oh, AJ does have character and he rose back up. I think that goes a long way in explaining why it was such an outburst after the fight for Joshua. Why, I mean, I'll give Usyk a lot of credit for just biting his lip and just taking, you know, the praise and the weirdness and going, okay, guy, thank you enough. Because this was a humbling moment for Anthony Joshua.

Not the end of his career at age 32, but unlike the Ruiz fight where you go, okay, that's a guy I should have be. I'll show you in the rematch. And, you know, we can critique all we want that even in that rematch, he didn't press it. I'm not even sure this guy can press it when you're that big.

We're asking him to do something against the generational talent that just wasn't going to be there. And if that's the way it's going to go down, it's going to go down like this. Alexander Usyk getting a second straight division decision win, which he did, which even with the flaws Joshua has shown, the star power, the recuperative ability from the standpoint of being in trouble but coming back, of losing to Ruiz but coming back. Joshua was a big part of this heavyweight era. And now Usy U6 got two

victories over him we're watching something very special breaking out in front of us and and and and I said that a lot at the end of U6 cruiserweight run I was lucky to call on the zone his fight against Tony Bellew his last cruiserweight fight before moving to heavyweight when he knocked him out thinking we may have someone super, super special here. But it was hard to overplay that hand because even though that cruiserweight era that he cleaned out was tougher than it had been in a long time, it wasn't on American TV. It wasn't overly sexy.

It's hard to get pound-for-pound votes as a cruiserweight fighting mostly non-American fighters off American TV. And I think we all had this fear that on the super elite level for Usyk moving up with those, the size differences, the lack of punch finishing power catch up to him. The final test, the final hurdle will be Tyson Fury for that equation. A guy who is a unicorn at six foot nine with the speed, the boxing can do it all. But what Usyk has done now through how many pro fights, where are we at at this point? What is the record? I mean, it has been remarkable. It's not out of the question, given

the run he had through the World Boxing Series tournament at Cruiserweight, getting all four belts that, you know, with respect to Evander Holyfield, Usyk may be the greatest Cruiserweight we've ever seen. What he's doing at heavyweight now with two straight victories over Joshua, you combine that with what he did at cruiserweight, and you know that entering now, if we can make this a Tyson Fury fight, which, I mean, we're talking about immortality. We are talking, you know, this is a,

we're coming off of the Floyd and Manny era in this sport. And, you know, Canelo has taken that baton beautifully as it made it his own era. And certainly, you know, Lomachenko has been a big historic player, winning titles in multiple divisions in this era. And the heavyweight Renaissance is a big part of this era with not only Joshua unifying titles, Fury coming back from his own outside the ring issues, you know, while they're being a long reigning champion. And now Usyk is the man of the group, the unified champion, the ring magazine lineal champion now.

I said it before this fight, I'll say this again. If Tyson Fury doesn't walk directly into a four belt undisputed championship with Usyk, who in an underreported story, I believe this is the end of that four fight deal he had signed with Matrim Sport to co-promote and and to zone which means he could be a network free agent here looking to fight Fury it's a scarlet letter because Tyson Fury is doing something in this second part of his career that is is putting him in a spot where it's going to be hard not to put him high up in the top 10 in heavyweight history, but he needs to keep acquiring more names like Usyk that have

mattered in his time and in his era to prove without a shadow of the doubt that he is the man of this era. That's why not only do I want to see Fury fight Usyk, I want to see him fight Joshua no matter what after that. You want to see everyone in the narrow fight everyone. Usyk has an opportunity if Fury accepts the fight, oh by the way that sort of drunken video he put out where he called both guys shite and you know whatever it sounded like he wanted the fight so that's a good thing because I think the flip side is it'll haunt him you know rid of both through the WBC title in the trash to avoid fighting Lennox Lewis who had knocked him out in the Olympic finals in 88 and you know I don't think Fury will end up doing this. I think at the end of the day, he will do the right thing. And I think this whole retirement thing has been

anything from him being bored to trying to keep his name in the headlines, to try to create maybe financial leverage when they sit down, because let's not forget who's to have three of the four belts. And now the mythical lineal title that was stripped from Fury after one of these recent retirements. Look, Fury's not officially retired. Watch this closely. Fury's not officially retired until he gives up the WBC belt publicly. And that's why you see Suleiman Jr., Mauricio, the head of WBC, stalling and putting on social media. We're giving him two more weeks to decide.

The second Tyson Fury gives up the BC belt, which I don't think he will. That's when you know, he's not interested in the Susick fight. It's not happening because this is a special time in boxing and heavyweight history at the moment where, where we've got four recognized champions, which is much too much in this era. But for the most part in all these major sexy divisions, they're willing to fight each other. We're putting four unified belts together,

undisputed championships in every other division. Nothing matters more than a heavyweight. So we've got to the finals of this tournament, of this Renaissance era. And now we've got two all-time greats ready to square off. And I do think Fury will show up there. And I do think Fury will show up there. And I do think with these two performances, even though most of us still consider Fury the heavyweight of this era

until they all meet in the ring and somebody who we thought would end up handling AJ, not easily, but solidly. But I think these performances showed you that even with the size difference, even with the lack of big-time power, Usyk's a player, and he's not going to be out of this fight as you look to handicap it when it gets closer to being made. And this will be a major, major fight. How did Usyk do this? How did he win on my scorecard eight rounds to four? Well, let's first look at the CompuBox numbers.

Usyk outlanding Joshua 170 to 124 overall. AJ had the body punch advantage at 37-34. Usyk had the jab advantage at 39-23. But the big stat that jumped out to me, 41% for Usyk of his power shots. There's a long adage in boxing that if you land at least 40% of your power shots in any fight, you should expect to win it. You should expect to have won it. That was a big part of it. So AJ, I thought boxed well early. That was the best we saw of him.

You want to ask what rounds, what four rounds I give to AJ ultimately? I think the first four rounds were close. I gave AJ two and three, and then I gave him eight and nine. The eight and nine part is the, along with what happened around 10, the key sequences of what ultimately decided this fight. But let's essentially start off at the top. AJ under Robert Garcia. He still had Coach Fernandez, by the way. I believe that was the gentleman's name who had been in his corner for a long time as well, along with McCracken. And I think Fernandez was taking the lead in the corner as the chief second for a lot of it.

But you certainly saw the impact of Robert Garcia. They didn't commit AJ to an all out guns out style of just, let's make this a four round fight in a brawl and see who's left standing. They tried to get AJ in better shape, which I think they did. Have them sort of change levels a bit, squat down, bend his knees, be a little bit more flowing. They kept using the word rhythm, Chris Algieri, who was one of the announcers calling the fight and his rhythm was bit more flowing. They kept using the word rhythm, Chris Algieri, who was one of the announcers calling the fight.

And his rhythm was much more confident. I think he was standing at a much closer distance against Usyk. I thought the body attack was better than the first, but in the end, it wasn't enough. It wasn't busy enough. For the most part, AJ, not busy enough. Now, why wasn't he busy enough? Because even though he was closer and at a range where he could land better,

so I think that brings up the threat of his power shots. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit Superstore.ca to get started. Usyk is still incredibly hard to hit with that speed, elusiveness, IQ, and his upper trunk movement.

And Canelo, right? The ability to swerve and swivel. Well, not only was that on point, but the head movement in particular, Usyk, the ability to just get his head out of the way so that he can open up avenues to counter. That built the frustration in AJ. But I think more importantly, Usyk countering AJ's jab with a jab of his own. A lot of times that shovel up jab, which became, sorry, from the southpaw position with the lead right hand. I had it right.

That became a big story of the fight. Every time AJ looked to establish the jab, he was getting a clean flush one directly in return. That started to disarm AJ and take away the jab, which is supposed to be his big weapon. I think also at that middle distance, every time AJ landed a body shot that was clean and big, and it was a good amount of them, Usyk would dip right back in, throw a two three punch combination of the body and essentially show the judges that he's not only willing to outwork AJ which he did overall in terms of punches attempted and punches landed it wasn't as demonstrative as

it had to be in the first fight to land big clean hard lead left hands to show AJ that if you f around I could get you out of here. But it was enough for Usyk to essentially continue the momentum he'd built in rounds one through 12 of the first fight and carry that into the second by just managing and controlling the distance in front of him, even though AJ was closer than the first fight and just being savvy and getting out of the way and always being there to counter him. There was a leaping Usyk jab that looked to buckle Joshua at the start of round five. I think that was in somewhat of an early turning point from a somewhat cloisest start. But it really began where every time Usyk would get close, land one big shot,

you see the output coming from Usyk to swallow it up. Well, the big turn happened in round eight. AJ going to the body aggressively. You can feel maybe he felt he was losing some of that momentum, even though Robert Garcia in the corner was trying to be an extra, extra positive. It started to not go in his direction. So he comes out throwing and he's going to the body and you could see it. It seemed to coincide perfectly with Usyk having his first sort of stamina dump moment. It took a lot of movement in both the first fight and the first half of the second fight from Usyk to avoid those big shots and be able to frustrate AJ enough where slowly as time went on, he's getting more and more disarmed, less and less output as time went on.

But that big flurry of body shots was the perfect storm at that moment for AJ. Usyk didn't look overly hurt in round eight, but it was enough for, you know, my scorecards to give AJ his first round since round three. So it was a big momentum turner. Usyk looked a little bit in pain. It didn't look like he was going to go down, but you could see the grimace on his face. Well,

then round nine, AJ comes out and he's starting ham off the start. He's, he's going hard to the body. Usyk to his credit is countering, but once AJ hit that big right hand uppercut to the body for the first time, you're going, Oh, not only is Usyk have to be careful, is countering, but once AJ hit that big right-hand uppercut to the body, for the first time you're going, oh, not only does Usyk have to be careful here,

he's slowing down. These punches are pulling at that guy's stake. This is why we said the gap in skill was enough in this rematch that with the influence of Robert Garcia, AJ was going to have to cut off the ring and do this throughout so that late in the fight he would have a chance to walk AJ down or walk Usyk down and get him out of there he didn't necessarily do that but he kept his enough stamina in there by the way he balanced it out to have enough to go for it here round nine it looked like he was going for it it looked like Usyk could with the right punch the right flurry

against the ropes be in serious trouble but this is why Usyk has special, special intangibles that are able to overcome the fact that nobody's perfect. Tyson Fury's close at heavyweight because, you know, for whatever he lacks in power punching, he's been able to double down on it through the cramp training of Javon Sugarhill. And he's been able to sort of fix that opening, that gap in his game. And he makes up for any mistakes or errors sometimes just by being longer than guys and being so tall and just being a unicorn. Who's six able to cover up for the fact that he's not a super heavyweight and he doesn't have this fight changing power by just having a plus plus

intangibles from the mental toughness to his ability to come out in round 10 after losing two consecutive rounds and in round nine for the first time looking legitimately tired and hurt. And by the way, AJ closed round nine, so confident. And so, uh, the, his output became so high that he got one for a hammer fist. I mean, he was throwing flurry combinations in the clinch inside stuff that, that you sort of said, if AJ is going to win this fight, it's probably gonna have to do by knockout. And he's probably going to have to be doing this so the round nine ends with with the best AJ of the fight as confident as can be pepping his step but intangible Usyk comes out in round 10 and completely flips the table on him completely changes the momentum by coming out

with quick sniping shots aggressive flaring to to the body, check hooks, just sort of just pinpoint sniper stuff that you go, oh, he's seizing back control. He's taking what's been lost and grabbing it and claiming it for his own. But then what happens? Usyk gets hurt in the midst of that, but bites down and comes right back to outland AJ down the stretch. So he put a line in the sand right there to stop AJ's momentum and then ate a big shot along the way to make sure he doesn't

fall apart. That's where the fight was won. In fact, not only did AJ not come out in the championship rounds with the type of urgency, but I also thought it was lacking in the first fight. Maybe he thought in the first fight, the scorecards were closer. He certainly thought the fight was closer in the way he acted here. But I think some of that is, it's sort of like you always say about a young slugger rising up. Well, what happens if the opponent is in there, takes his best shot. I don't think Usyk ever really took AJ's best shot in this rematch. In fact, I think in the first fight, there were singular punches thrown by AJ that were more impactful. There were a few here for AJ, but overall, it was the body shots that sort of set up to create these moments.

And Usyk took it, and he came right back. When you're that big, and there are doubts, and you're trying so hard to show everybody that, no, I really am this good. That takes a lot of wind out of your sails. That takes a lot of air out of the balloon. And I think that's what happened to AJ over the championship rounds. I think he kind of just cruised to the finish, tried to have some moments, came out aggressive around 12,

but anytime Usyk met that aggression, AJ went back into not survival mode, but let's go to the scorecards and see who won it. And then I think when he didn't win, that's when you saw that emotional outburst, the embarrassment, the upset. I mean, it's the hardest thing in this sport when you know you gave your best effort. And again, for the second straight fight, I'm here to tell you that stylistically, AJ tried really hard in what he thought would be his path to victory and his strengths to get there. But stylistically, in the end, he made the wrong decisions.

But he didn't know that. He thought he can pull this off. He thought he can come out here and outbox him or at least box him on even enough terms to set up a big power sequence late. If Alexander Usyk, intangible- wise, wasn't on the level that he ultimately showed that he was a different guy would have cracked. In fact, Usyk came close in round nine, but he never did because he is that special. And this fight meant that much to him.

And I think, you know, you look back, I was right. As did other people sort of saying, look, you'd look at the focus in Usyk, the purpose, what this means to the nation going through war. It's going to be hard to beat that guy. And it was. And the biggest crime in this ultimately was that Usyk didn't get that chance to have that joyous celebration because AJ sort of commandeered it. You know, it wasn't even AJ in his own hometown where he's trying to calm everybody. I mean, it was, you It was neutral ground in Jeddah.

But either way, big night in the heavyweight division. Big business to come in the form of Fury versus Usyk. And I think Usyk said it best when he finally did get the microphone. Not only did he urge Fury to...

He put out any speculation by saying no, no, no. Fury's not retired. I know he knows that in his heart, too. But then Usyk said, I'm not fighting anybody else unless it's Fury. That's some good shit right there. I mean, that's some, I'm telling you, if you've been following Usyk as long as Rafe and I have been, you know how much of a character he is, but you also know how great he is and how great he had the potential to be. How could he do it against these giants?

Like he hasn't faced everybody in this heavyweight division. I'm not trying to act like suddenly Usyk's, you know, the 11th greatest heavyweight of all time and knocking on the door to get in the top 10. We haven't seen him fight the Dillian whites and the, you know, Louis Ortiz's and the Deontay Wilders. And hopefully just what, what that same thing I hope for fury that everybody gets the chance to fight each other. He's, this is only what his fourth heavyweight fight. And you can throw out the Chaz Witherspoon late replacement fight the first

time around, you know, it was just Sora and it was AJ twice, but he's proven he can dance in the land of the giants. And I believe fury will take this fight. Now I believe it'll be a huge event. And I think although you favor fury and you should, he's got some stylistic issues here to deal with because the same issue that I said, faced AJ in this one is going to be true for fury, just in different ways.

Meaning for as good as AJ is as a boxer puncher, the end of the day, you're never going to outbox and get a decision against a guy like this, unless you're willing to take the risk that it takes to hurt him, not just hurt him once there in the, in the ninth round, but, but hurt him throughout the fight and really make him fight the fight that you want to not the fight that Usyk does well on the flip side for fury. There's really nobody else in this division like Usyk who can give him this same exact challenge. There's punchers like Wilder who you always have to watch out for. There's guys like Luis Ortiz who, albeit older now, had enough of a balance of punching power and boxing ability where it's going to be a tough out for anybody.

Somebody else like Usyk. Somebody else who's the softball with that movement but that daring who's willing i mean this this is why this heavyweight division is so fun and why it feels so good to get this close to having this moment of who's the man who's the man uh historically for this time the man of the moment but the man of the moment, but the man of this timeframe post Klitschko. It would be poetic if it ultimately is Fury because he took the title cleanly, the titles cleanly from Vladimir Klitschko back in 2015. So, you know, that's why he's been able to keep sort of this mythical lineal crown until

he just got stripped. But if it's Usyk again with that cruiserweight record behind him and those accomplishments we're watching, but if it's Usyk again with that cruiserweight record behind him and those accomplishments we're watching we're watching a special top operator here as as as some in the in the boxing hardcore would say and and it's it's it's a special time to watch him um AJ did the best he could for this style and in this circumstance but I think there's some things that he has to come to terms with about his own limitations and he needs to alter his style to better fit that I think uh inevitably AJ versus Wilder still a huge money fight AJ trilogy with Ruiz if both are willing to let their hands go I mean there are

still you know anytime AJ's gonna fight it's gonna. He is one of the stars of this modern run here. And, you know, the face of UK boxing and this revolution that's going on there. But he's at least third best of this era. And I think we came to find that out again tonight. And it's no harm done when you look at the two above him. What a heavyweight time to be alive. What a fun rematch. not overly dramatic in terms of swings and momentum, but it had a few and it was at a high level, seemingly high drama, despite a

neutral backdrop there in Jetta. But you know, skills pay the bills at the end of the day. And AJ tried to outskill Usyk and you can't win that battle. The counterjabs, the flurrying was masterful. I enjoyed it. What a day. What a day for combat sports. I'll be back in a few hours counting down what went down and the UFC 287 pay-per-view going on right now. About to tune in.

This was BC One-Half of Your Morning Combat Duo. Luke Thomas back next week. All-MK all the time. That's all I got to say. morning combat duo, Luke Thomas back next week. All MK all the time. That's all I got to say. Heavyweights. We back. I enjoyed it. I need a sweat rag,

a washcloth, a bottle of water. I'm out. Don't. That's it. I mean, and.