The Usyk-Fury Blogpost

I tried my hand at covering the historical significance of an undisputed heavyweight fight happening elsewhere. And I had to throw away the February prediction write-up I did in January after Fury's cut delayed the fight, though I might reuse it if they follow through on their threat of an immediate rematch.

This time I'm instead going to write about some little things that stuck out to me in this long-awaited (and already slightly stale) saga. Let's start with the big news: Tyson Fury is clean-shaven. For the first time in a while. Exciting stuff. Why though? Well, we know that facial hair makes you look older. A famous example in boxing was a 38 year old Muhammad Ali, who sported a moustache in the press conference announcing the Larry Holmes fight, he eventually shaved it off so he wouldn't look as old in their ill-advised money match.

A more contemporary example would be a face-tatted Brooklyn quinquagenarian stepping back into the ring against... some guy.

Did you know Usyk is older than Fury? Only by about an anderhalf year, 37 vs 35 on fight night. For context, compared to the last undisputed heavyweight bout, Usyk would be only slightly older than Holyfield was in the Lewis rematch (and Fury would be about two years older than Lewis was). Usyk will actually be the oldest man to challenge for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world since a 42 year old Larry Holmes challenged Holyfield in 1992. Afaik this is the first time this has ever been compiled, so here are the oldest men to challenge for the UHCotW since Joe Louis became champ in 1937 - winners in bold.

1. Archie Moore (42 years, 11 months, 17 days) vs Floyd Patterson, 1956
2. Larry Holmes (42 years, 7 months, 16 days) vs Evander Holyfield, 1992
3. George Foreman (42 years, 3 months, 10 days) vs Evander Holyfield, 1992
4. Archie Moore (41 years, 9 months, 8 days) vs Rocky Marciano, 1955
5. Jersey Joe Walcott (39 years, 3 months, 15 days) vs Rocky Marciano (II), 1953
6. Jersey Joe Walcott (38 years, 7 months, 23 days) vs Rocky Marciano (I), 1952
7. Jersey Joe Walcott (38 years, 4 months, 5 days) vs Ezzard Charles (III), 1952
8. Larry Holmes (38 years, 2 months, 19 days) vs Mike Tyson, 1988
9. Jersey Joe Walcott (37 years, 5 months, 18 days) vs Ezzard Charles (II), 1951
10. Oleksandr Usyk (37 years, 4 months, 1 day) vs Tyson Fury, 2024
11. Jersey Joe Walcott (37 years, 1 month, 7 days) vs Ezzard Charles (I), 1951
12. Evander Holyfield (37 years, 25 days) vs Lennox Lewis (II), 1999
13. Evander Holyfield (36 years, 4 months, 22 days) vs Lennox Lewis (I), 1999
14. Joe Louis (36 years, 4 months, 14 days) vs Ezzard Charles, 1950
15. Muhammad Ali (36 years, 30 days) vs Leon Spinks, 1978
16. Tyson Fury (35 years, 9 months, 7 days) vs Oleksandr Usyk, 2024

Note: Sonny Liston, who would no doubt take 3 spots in the top 10, has been excluded by virtue of his age being a mystery.
Note: Joe Louis in his non-title fight with Rocky Marciano was 137 years, 5 months and 13 days old - which would put him 10th just above Usyk.

As we can see, Usyk is no spring chicken but Fury isn't too far behind either. You'll likely have noticed that nearly all of the old-timers lost and Jersey Joe was the only who managed to overcome his age. The delays, cope, and irrational actions have been on Fury's side of things so far so this may be another case of a boxer hoping their opponent will be disadvantaged by Father Time. Will the additional camp time help Fury in more ways than one?

Fury has shared a couple of photos showing his recent physique. Or rather, most of his physique. He sure does like to obscure his hip (and spare tire?) with his forearm. The first photo is an exercise in how not to do propaganda, as the position of the sun in the sky betrays him. Who knows what pies lurk in the bellies of greedy men? The shadow knows!

It's a little odd for him to be insecure about his appearance now given that he's shown up to press conferences looking rotund before. Though those hurtful observations peaked with the stark contrast of him standing opposite a chiseled Francis Ngannou last year at their press conferences. Even the usually unopinionated broadcasters frequently commented on it throughout fight week. After a less-than-stellar performance and generous decision win, his opponent had the last laugh.

His age and weight aren't what Fury's most insecure about though - that would be his height. "何！？", I hear you exclaim to yourselves, "Why would someone that tall be insecure about their height?" Because, despite being very tall, he wishes he was taller. Also the internet is a major source of misinformation and I think we should all push back against that, so I'm going to make a rare exception and SEO-optimise this for posterity.

How tall is Tyson Fury?

What is Tyson Fury's height?
Tyson Fury constantly lies about his height and claims to be 6ft9.
Tyson Fury's actual height is 6ft6.
Tyson Fury has been lying about his height for over a decade.
Tyson Fury is not 6'9".

A few years ago, Tyson Fury met the 6ft4 actor Jason Momoa. Fury is slightly taller and in the exchange Momoa height checks him, estimating Fury to 6ft6 or 6ft5. Fury, as he has been doing since at least 2011, falsely claims to be 6ft9. Momoa responds "you're 6'9"!?" with utter incredulity in his voice. Comedy gold. Tyson Fury is undeniably no taller than 6'6". Some give him a half-inch or inch benefit of the doubt, while I'm a firm believer that your shoes should not be counted as part of your height.

You want proof that Tyson Fury is not 6'9"? How about this 2010 article from the Manchester Evening News that says Fury "stands 6ft 6in tall"? Or all the photographs where he faces off against the 6ft6 Wladimir Klitschko? There are also plenty of photos of him after various sparring sessions where, while standing next to other tall fighters, he elects to stand on his tippy-toes to keep up the lie. We know it's a point of pride for him because he constantly derides Usyk as a 'midget' and 'rabbit'.

Which brings me to the claim I've heard that "Usyk is too small", either for the heavyweight division or to beat Tyson Fury. While he is comparatively small by the standard modern European giants have set, Usyk is 6ft3 and generally weighs around 220lbs. If you're a boxing fan, you already know where I'm going with this. You know who else was 6ft3 and weighed around 220lbs? Muhammad Ali. Their stature differs in one way and is very comparable in another.

There are, by my count, 9 (nine!) titles on the line for this fight:

• WBA
• WBC
• IBF
• WBO
• The Ring
• Lineal championship
• IBO (lol. lmao even.)
• Another ugly, meaningless custom-made belt courtesy of the WBC's Mauricio "daddy issues" Sulaimán; the only mildly interesting thing about this monstrosity (the belt, I mean) is that it was "blessed" and signed by Pope Francis because money talks.
• A custom-made "UNDISPUTED" belt courtesy of Turki AlAlshikh, it's not the first one-off belt in heavyweight history but to the best of my knowledge, it is the first one to be made for unifying a fractured division.

That's about all that's coming to mind now. I'm skipping most of the interviews and press conferences for this fight. Plain sick and tired of Tyson Fury. And could never really get on board with another wooden Eastern European personality whose English is best described as strongly-accented, it wasn't meant to happen again so soon after the Klitschko era.

I'll most likely write something more in the days after the fight. A few of the fights on the card are pretty good, the Saudi promotion machine deserves more praise, and we are fast-approaching a new heavyweight era.