One of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world once again prevailed in enemy territory.
Undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (16-0, 12 KOs) denied England’s Tony Bellew a storybook ending to his career, as the Ukrainian steadily took over proceedings after a slow start and knocked Bellew out with a sensational left hand in the eighth round. Bloody Elbow scored the fight 67-66 for Usyk at the time of the stoppage, although two official judges at ringside at the Manchester Arena scored it in Bellew’s favor.
Round one was largely a feel-out process, but action did pick up by round three, and both men landed good shots on each other. Bellew went primarily for power punches off the counter and Usyk committed to his jab, one of the most difficult puzzles to solve in all of boxing. The partisan crowd cheered almost anything Bellew did, even if he didn’t necessarily land anything effective, but he did display some impressive defense at times, and tried to get into Usyk’s head with some mid-fight taunts. Unfortunately for the former WBC cruiserweight champion, he would be no different than other Usyk opponents in terms of dealing with the Olympic gold medalist’s footwork, speed, jabbing, angles, and relentless pressuring and pace. It was evident by round six that Bellew was starting to tire, and Usyk had figured out Bellew’s timing and started to unload some more damaging shots as the fight progressed.
In round eight, Usyk unleashed a series of combination shots with Bellew against the ropes, and unlike previous rounds when Usyk was more measured stalking Bellew, he upped his tempo while the Liverpool native was throwing back less frequently and at times not at all. The southpaw’s left hands slammed home repeatedly on Bellew’s face, and the last one floored Bellew and almost knocked him halfway out of the ring. Bellew beat the count but was clearly in no position to keep fighting, assuring that Usyk would have his hand raised in an intriguing encounter.
Official result: Oleksandr Usyk def. Tony Bellew by KO at 2:00 of round 8 to remain the WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO cruiserweight champion
Usyk won the WBO title from Krzysztof Glowacki in Poland back in September 2016, then after two defenses in the United States, he entered the World Boxing Super Series and in September 2017 he stopped former WBO champion Marco Huck in Huck’s native Germany, took the WBC title from Latvia’s Mairis Briedis in January 2018 in Riga, then won the WBA and IBF belts off of Russia’s Murat Gassiev in Moscow in July. Now he’s knocked Bellew out in England. If that’s not the stuff of legends I don’t know what else to say. He is good friends with Vasyl Lomachenko and is occasionally trained by Vasyl’s dad... the results speak for themselves.
Bellew indicated post-fight that he is sticking to his retirement plans, and while he did get knocked out, he acquitted himself fairly well and reportedly pocketed at least $5 million from this 200 lbs clash. He was all class in his interview, praising Usyk as an elite fighter and the superior pugilist, while wishing him the best in his career. Usyk’s co-promoter indicated that they want an eventual showdown with Anthony Joshua at heavyweight, and at the very minimum, don’t be surprised if Usyk’s first fight in 2019 is at heavyweight, although it is extremely unlikely that it’d be Joshua next for him.