BERNSTEIN ON BOXING YES, IT’S SPECIAL By Al Bernstein
with drama of all kinds. You notice my choice of words; I did not say it was filled with the greatest heavyweights of all time. As a fan, then chronicler of a number of heavyweight eras, I am reticent about going that far, though I won’t scoff at others who want to take that leap. I can say for sure, however, that we have seen plenty of excellence from boxers in this era. So what does it take for an era to qualify as special? Here are some essential elements.
from grace due to substance abuse and mental health issues, and a remarkable comeback from those circumstances. Add into the mix controversial statements that sometimes come under the category of showmanship and other times are simply tasteless and even cruel. And factor in that he is capable of a kind of roguish charm that includes singing full songs (in tune, no less) in the ring right after getting hit in the head for 12 rounds by a big heavyweight. The whole package is head-spinning when you look back on it. So check off “larger-than-life figure” for this era.
opposition has been world class, and as a heavyweight he’s faced bigger opposition. He has won with guile and boxing skills and combination punching. That said, let’s not forget that in his first fight with Fury, it was he, the former cruiserweight, who almost stopped the big heavyweight – not the other way around. You can look at his career eight ways from Sunday and it always adds up to being an astonishing run. His win in the Fury rematch put an exclamation mark on it. Generational fighter? This era has one.
1. A LARGER-THAN- LIFE FIGURE
3. AN ENIGMA
2. A GENERATIONAL FIGHTER
It was not a popular stance 15 years ago to suggest Tyson Fury would be a force in the heavyweight division. I am no sage, and I’m sure I have been wrong just as much as I have been right, but on THIS one, I am on the right side of history. I was on the Fury bandwagon as early as 2010. I announced a ShoBox show in which Fury won by decision vs. Richie Power. It was not an impressive win, but I felt strongly that his physical advantages, potentially good jab and fearless approach to the sport would lead him to success. I chronicled much of his march to contention while announcing his fights on Channel 5, the over-the-air network in the U.K. I saw him get better and win some important matches, like his first big win over Derek Chisora in 2011. It was pretty lonely on the Fury bandwagon back in those days, but, like him, I stayed the course. “Larger than life” describes Fury inside and outside the ring. He has provided us with wildly exciting moments inside the ring with Wilder, Usyk and others, a spectacular fall
The definition of enigma is: “A person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, difficult to understand.” Every important heavyweight era has had a meaningful fighter who was an enigmatic figure. For this era, Anthony Joshua, please raise your hand. Joshua and his epic ups and downs have been a dramatic part of this fascinating era – a part that has added plenty of intrigue. Since Joshua won his first title in 2016, he has drawn historic crowds, made consistently huge paydays, won and lost world titles and constantly surprised us at every turn. It isn’t just his wins and losses. Yes, we were shocked when he lost to Andy Ruiz and perhaps somewhat too surprised when he lost to Usyk the first time. He further surprised us, in a positive way, by knocking out Francis Ngannou after Fury had failed to hurt the debutant boxer and nearly lost to him. So the results of his fights are often puzzling, but beyond that is the manner in which he wins or loses that frequently befuddles us. He came back to defeat Ruiz in their rematch with
In 1988, Evander Holyfield had completely conquered the cruiserweight division and moved to heavyweight. He would win the undisputed crown in his new division by beating Buster Douglas in 1990. He went on to become a great champion and provided us with thrilling moments in that era of heavyweights. That had not been done before and remained a singular feat until Usyk traveled the Holyfield highway to do it again in THIS era of heavyweights. It is almost impossible to overstate what Usyk has accomplished. First he ran the gauntlet in a VERY talented cruiserweight division by fighting top contenders and other beltholders in THEIR home territories to unify titles. Then he became a heavyweight and within five years became the undisputed champion. His opponents in eight of his last 10 bouts, covering two weight divisions, have been former, current or future world titleholders. Since winning his first cruiserweight title, most of his
B efore I was on television, I wrote for Boxing Illustrated in the late 1970s. I wrote about the period of transition from the heavyweight division dominated by Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman to the one that Larry Holmes would lead in the 1980s. In that period, I was able to chronicle great fights involving Holmes, Kenny Norton, Earnie Shavers, Jimmy Young and others. It was a remarkable time for the heavyweights. Before that, I was simply a fan of the division dating back to the late 1950s, when I was a 9-year-old listening to the Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johansson fights on my transistor radio. So I go back a little with the heavyweight division. Now here we are, so many years later in the aftermath of the historically important and well-fought rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury. Usyk’s win cemented his place in
Oleksandr Usyk’s rematch victory over Tyson Fury is among the high points of this heavyweight era.
boxing folklore as a ring great while doing no real harm to Fury’s legacy as a major heavyweight in this era and beyond. The fight also demonstrated that the big names of this era are still capable of producing exciting and important fights, though they are clearly in the twilight of their boxing careers. This seems like the appropriate moment in time to assess this exciting period in heavyweight history. I’ll define this as the post-Klitschko era, even though Wladimir Klitschko did participate in two of the fights that spawned two of the superstars of this era. Klitschko’s 2015 loss to Tyson Fury ended his long title reign and announced Fury’s arrival at the championship level. Then his thrilling loss to Anthony Joshua in 2017 seemed to validate Joshua as a heavyweight champion. So the torch was truly passed in those two fights. Unlike the period before that,
when the Klitschko name (including brother Vitali) seemed to control heavyweight boxing, this ushered in an era where multiple men held titles and shared the limelight. In this current era, to this point, we have not seen two of the biggest matches fans yearned for – Fury vs. Joshua or Joshua vs. Deontay Wilder. Since boxing fans are often by nature a “glass half-empty” group, one could imagine many seeing this era as a disappointment. That assessment would be true if you based it only on this small set of facts. By any other standard, however, I think this era of heavyweight boxing has been fun, exciting and filled
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