Oleksandr Usyk and Derek Chisora’s intense face-off
The thing with all geniuses? They are flawed. The brilliant Oleksandr Usyk’s weaknesses are not apparent and may not even exist but he has never faced anyone as capable of exposing his shortcomings as Derek Chisora.
The knots in the stomach today are because either Usyk or Chisora have horribly, horribly miscalculated the risk that they are poised to take.
Saturday night’s heavyweight fight, live on Sky Sports Box Office from 6pm, brings together the self-anointed future of the division against its cult hero of a contender. Chisora has already worn a Halloween outfit to ward off evil demons but he will need much more than that tonight to halt Usyk’s rise.
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2:26 Derek Chisora says many people ‘could be surprised’
This fight is ultimately about the burning questions that Usyk must face in his new adventure as a heavyweight.
To reach his target of eventually challenging for Anthony Joshua’s world heavyweight championship he must first prove that he has strength as well as skills against the veteran Chisora, who has laughed off the suggestion that he is a mere gatekeeper.
“You shall not pass,” he bellowed in his best Lord of the Rings impression.
Ukraine’s undefeated Usyk has amassed an Olympic gold medal, the World Boxing Super Series and the undisputed cruiserweight championship but Chisora believes none of those accolades will matter because they were achieved outside of the heavyweight division.
He might have a point.
Only two cruiserweight champions have ever won a heavyweight world title and David Haye, the second man to do it, is now Chisora’s manager and was the driving force in agreeing this fight. Haye doesn’t see the required punch-power in Usyk.
“Ask Tony Bellew,” Usyk uttered, the most cutting remark of the week.
The doubts about Usyk’s knockout power have lingered and have visibly annoyed him. Bellew, who Usyk knocked out in a cruiserweight fight, has added to them.
“David Haye is the hardest puncher I’ve faced,” Bellew has said.
Joshua is keeping an eye on Usyk but warned: “He was amateur for a long time so he has taken the ‘hit and don’t get hit’ style into the pros.
“The good thing that helped me? Sometimes I know to sit down on my feet and hurt someone.
“You’ve got to let them know that you’re there because all that pitty-patty stuff after 12 rounds? Sometimes people don’t respect that type of power.”
5:38 The best knockouts from Derek Chisora’s career
But there is something special about Usyk, you can just sense the aura.
Even the last man to stop him in a little-known amateur fight bizarrely denied ever doing so, such is the rarity of an Usyk defeat.
The danger is that you spend so long transfixed by his dancing feet or his thousand-yard stare that you become hypnotised under his spell.
“He’s the best fighter I ever sparred,” said Dave Allen who has also sparred Joshua and Tyson Fury.
His run over the past three years is as savage as it is ridiculous – winning in Germany, Latvia and Russia each time against a world champion from that country, then knocking out Bellew in the UK and successfully transitioning into the heavyweights.
He has done it all with eccentricity inside and outside the ring – this week he was played darts and PlayStation – and you can feel his huge personality despite his limited English. The language barrier has added to his mystique rather than hindered him.
“Every man has the same chin,” Usyk said in defence of his punch-power. “You cannot work it out somehow in the gym. The shot should not be really hard to make a man fall down.”
He will give away nearly three stone in weight to Chisora but maintains: “If the king of animals would be considered according to the size, then it would be elephant, not the lion.”
0:49 Elephant or lion? Usyk and Chisora debate the king of the jungle
Chisora has more lives than a cat and his latest reinvention (is this Chisora.3 or Chisora.4 by now?) is the most dangerous yet because his inherent aggression is honed better than ever.
There have been no tables thrown this week – the horror show of his Halloween outfit at the weigh-in pre-empted the nastiest moment where Usyk and Chisora eyeballed each other just inches apart while muttering threats.
The geezer once known as Del Boy has ditched his fair-weather preparation which included lunch in Mayfair after a gentle jog, and replaced it with a punishing regime led by his former enemy Haye.
“I’m going to bring him down to the trenches,” Chisora said about Usyk.
“Yes, I’m going to eat some leather, but I can guarantee you, when I land my leather, he would know.
“I’m prepared to eat leather, 100 per cent. Is he prepared to eat my leather as well? I don’t think so. I’m ready to eat all he’s got.”
Chisora is a veteran of fights with Vitali Klitschko, Tyson Fury (twice), Kubrat Pulev, Dillian Whyte (twice) and Carlos Takam and essentially views Usyk as someone whose bravery isn’t matched by his brawn.
0:30 Derek Chisora: Is Oleksandr Usyk willing to ‘eat leather?’
The temptation is to be blinded by Usyk’s undefeated record and the mythology that surrounds him.
But his great ally Vasiliy Lomachenko, previously regarded as the world’s best boxer, was upset earlier this month by Teofimo Lopez. Lomachenko found himself as the smaller, weaker man in a division that didn’t naturally suit him and there is a real danger that Usyk will find the same.
The clues will be in the breathing and the composure of Usyk as he returns to his stool between rounds – he will win some rounds, surely, but he cannot afford to ship too much punishment in the meantime.
If he can keep the rampaging Chisora off of him, then he will truly capture Joshua’s attention.
Watch Usyk vs Chisora on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Box Office, from 6pm. Book it via your Sky remote or book it online here. Even if you aren’t a Sky TV subscriber you can book and watch it here.
