The Heavyweight Horizon

16 Nov, 2023

"The champion of the whole world can whoop every man in Russia, every man in America, every man in China, every man in Japan, every man in Europe." (Muhammad Ali) The undisputed heavyweight championship of the world, once considered the biggest prize in sport, has lain dormant for some time now. That's due to change on February 17th, 2024, when Oleksandr Usyk (WBA/IBF/WBO titlist) is set to face Tyson Fury (WBC titlist) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This is significant for several reasons. The first is that there aren't many undisputed heavyweight champions. Since Floyd Patterson stepped up and took his overdue medicine in 1962, only 10 men can claim to have been 'the baddest man on the planet'.

1. Sonny Liston
2. Muhammad Ali (two reigns¹)
3. Joe Frazier
4. George Foreman
5. Leon Spinks
6. Mike Tyson
7. Buster Douglas
8. Evander Holyfield
9. Riddick Bowe
10. Lennox Lewis

The second reason it's significant is how long ago a lot of this was. Lennox Lewis was WBC champion when he faced WBA/IBF champion Evander Holyfield on March 13th, 1999. That fight ended in an infamous split draw after judge Eugenia Williams scored it as a win for Holyfield. She would later explain that her view of the fight was impeded², though some still believe that her view was impeded by burlap sacks with dollar signs on them.

Nevertheless, on November 13th, 1999 - 8 months on from the first fight - Lewis would set the record straight and defeat Holyfield to become undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. No one at the time would've predicted that it would take a quarter century until the next one. Lewis was stripped by the WBA for facing the #1 WBC contender instead, so the belts were immediately broken up again.

That means the last undisputed reign (i.e. holding all the belts and putting them all on the line at least once) was Evander Holyfield's - from his win against Buster Douglas (Oct. 1990) to his loss against Riddick Bowe (Nov. 1992). Bowe held the belts for a time and was ordered to face #1 WBC contender Lennox Lewis in his first defense. He instead called a press conference in London, England and literally threw his WBC belt in the bin.³ One could make a strong argument that heavyweight boxing never truly recovered from his decision.

Another rarity of this upcoming match is that Fury and Usyk have both been champions and are both officially undefeated going into this match. To the best of my knowledge, this has only ever happened once before in a heavyweight contest for all the belts. March 8th, 1971. When Smokin' Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali in 'the Fight of the Century' at Madison Square Garden - an event so monumental it even managed to catch the FBI slippin'.

Though perhaps the most significant thing about Usyk vs Fury is that it's happening in Saudi Arabia. Undisputed heavyweight fights usually happen in the US of A, the fact that it's happening on the other side of the planet with two non-American fighters might one day be looked back at as a watershed moment. For reference, here is every undisputed title fight to happen outside of America since 1919.

1. Carnera vs Uzcudun*⁴ - (Kingdom of Italy, 1933)
2. Frazier vs Foreman - (Jamaica, 1973)
3. Foreman vs Roman - (Japan, 1973)
4. Foreman vs Norton - (Venezuela, 1974)
5. Foreman vs Ali - (Zaire, 1974)
6. Ali vs Bugner - (Malaysia, 1975)
7. Ali vs Frazier - (Phillippines, 1975)
8. Ali vs Coopman - (Puerto Rico, 1976)
9. Ali vs Dunn - (West Germany, 1976)
10. Tyson vs Tubbs - (Japan, 1988)
11. Tyson vs Douglas - (Japan, 1990)

Only Primo Carnera's all-European bout of four score and ten years ago lacked an American presence. If we go back even further we'd have to include fights from before the 1920s, when boxing was still illegal in many places and fights would be decided by newspapers if they weren't broken up by the police first. Though that list only contains a further 12 fights featuring Canadian Tommy Burns⁵, who went on a lucrative world tour, and African-American Jack Johnson⁶, who was hounded out of America.

Burns and Johnson keeping the belts abroad for so long ironically ended up setting the stage for boxing's big American comeback. Jess Willard's inactivity as champion during WW1 contributed too. Between knocking out Jack Johnson to win the title in 1915 and facing 'The Manassa Mauler' Jack Dempsey in 1919, Willard fought one reportedly dull 10-round decision in 1916. By contrast, Dempsey had 66 fights over the exact same period.

With the war won and boxing legitimised by the US government, Tex Rickard - the Don King of his day - rejected offers from Cuba, Mexico, Canada, and beyond to insist that the heavyweight title fight had to happen in America. And so it did. On a scorching-hot 4th of July in 1919; Toledo, Ohio would have its 'Day in The Sun'. Jack Dempsey knocked down Jess Willard seven times in the first round and would continue to beat him bloody for another two rounds after that. His following contests would be no less spectacular, boosting his own celebrity and boxing's popular image to dizzying heights. The George Bellows painting of Dempsey getting knocked out of the ring by Argentinian Luis Firpo would become so iconic that it got parodied by The Simpsons over 70 years later.

Those Roaring Twenties matches were also assisted by the advent of mass media, such as a new invention called 'radio broadcasts' and an explosion of new periodicals like TIME, Reader's Digest, and The Ring Magazine which all regularly featured him. Unless Neuralink suddenly stops killing monkeys or there are massive developments in VR in the next few months, I don't think boxing can count on new technology to save it. Would-be superstars will have to fight for the limelight themselves the old-fashioned way.

Usyk-Fury is set to be the first undisputed heavyweight match to ever happen in the Middle East. Saudi Vision 2030 and the vast wealth of neighbouring petrostates likely means it won't be the last. But maybe the competition will be a good thing in the long run. The American ex-champion Deontay Wilder will be waiting in the wings. As will his countryman, Toledo-born heavyweight Jared Anderson (16-0, 15 KOs, 24 years old). Boxing might be on the ropes, but it only ever needs one big punch to turn things around. And same as it was over 100 years ago, the biggest punches are thrown by biggest guys.

Footnotes