By Norm Frauenheim –
Boxing and war are often confused, especially in the media. Great fights are called wars. Great fighters are warriors. It’s part of the hype. Sometimes, it’s part of the sales pitch.
Marvin Hagler’s wild stoppage of Thomas Hearns in 1987 is forever remembered as The War, which would later become a logo stitched in white across the front of Hagler’s blood-red cap.
Warfare as symbol and metaphor has always been part of the story. It’s there, a chapter in history, where symbol and sport become one. Joe Louis’ rematch knockout of German Max Schmeling in 1938 is considered a milestone, the first blows thrown in a looming World War.
But it takes a current war, long and lethal, to separate the symbol from the sport, the carnage from the circus.
Make no mistake, boxing is dangerous. But war is disaster.
Oleksandr Usyk reminds us of that, especially Saturday (DAZN, 10 am PT/1 pm ET) when he re-enters the ring for a rematch against Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia after weeks of duty in a self-defense unit in Ukraine.
He’s a soldier on leave. His fellow warriors in the fight against Russia will still patrol city streets and Ukrainian countryside while he goes back to work on a job that pays millions. But that job takes on a magnitude hard to overstate.
Impossible to imagine.
“My country and my honor are more important to me than a championship belt,” he said repeatedly throughout the weeks before Saturday’s opening bell.
Fighting-for-country is a well-worn cliche, especially at the Olympics. But Usyk, who fought and won Olympic gold for his country in 2012, will now fight for the Ukraine in a mission to inspire his nation’s fellow warriors.
Usyk, a family man with three kids, told reporters at a news conference in Jeddah Thursday that he’s been in touch with fellow soldiers.
“I receive voice and video messages from them with words of support and news that they are praying for me and for my victory,’’ said Usyk, who agreed to fight the heavyweight rematch at the urging of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “They are holding their hands tight and praying for my victory. That motivates me.”
Attention to detail in the gym is about all Usyk could do once the deal for the rematch was done in mid-June. He upset the bigger Joshua last September, scoring a unanimous decision over the popular UK heavyweight. But the war at home also was impossible to shut out. It’s there, 24-7, on television. Its effect was there, too, evident on the scale early in training camp. He had lost weight.
“In the first month of the war, I lost 10 pounds,” Usyk told The Guardian.
He blamed it on stress that every Ukrainian felt at the first sound of a Russian missile and the first sight of a dead neighbor. But the pounds came back. If anything, Usyk looks to be bigger than he was in his September victory over Joshua for three of the significant belts. He’s expected to be around 220 pounds against the 6-foot-6 Joshua, who promises to be more aggressive with new trainer Robert Garcia in his corner.
There are questions about whether the added bulk will impact Usyk’s unique footwork and upper-body movement. Joshua, curiously passive for the last few years, is expected to unleash an early assault.
The unspoken question rests in how Usyk will deal with the unprecedented pressure that will follow him into the ring. An entire war-torn country will be watching. Usyk ensured it.
Initially, Usyk offered to buy the television rights. His plan was to make the fight free on his YouTube channel for everybody in the Ukraine. Then, promoters decided to simply give the rights to Usyk, who quietly did what Tyson Fury demanded between a couple of retirements over the last couple of months. Fury — still retired the last anybody checked — said he would fight the Usyk-Joshua winner only if the UK could see the fight for free. Fury also said he’d fight for only half-a-billion dollars.
Hard to know what Fury is doing.
But there’s no confusion about Usyk. In a rare moment when war and boxing will be impossible to separate, he’s fighting for warriors he left at home and warriors he plans to rejoin.