World boxing match in Saudi Arabia
First the tears, then the fight: The Ukrainian world boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk is on a mission
Prayed every day at the beginning of the war: world boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk at the public weigh-in
© Giuseppe Cacace / AFP
The boxing match between defending champion Oleksandar Usyk and Anthony Joshua is a spectacle in itself. But because Usyk is Ukrainian, the duel becomes a national event – the 35-year-old is boxing for a battered country.
Oleksandar Usyk looked awake, focused and fit at the press conference before the fight against Anthony Joshua this Saturday evening in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (11 p.m. / DAZN). The face-off ritual, in which the boxers face each other, was completed by both heavyweights without batting an eyelid. Immediately afterwards, Usyk intoned a Ukrainian folk song that has been extremely popular since the beginning of the war. With his forelock on his otherwise shaved head and long mustache, Usyk presented himself as an aggressive Cossack. He wore the right costume.
What seemed folkloric to some observers at this moment is meant deadly seriously. Usyk, the world heavyweight champion, fights for an entire country. This is the role he chose himself. He is standing up for a free Ukraine, for a country that is fighting back Russian aggression as best it can. The title fight will be freely broadcast on TV in Ukraine. Usyk originally wanted to buy the broadcasting rights himself so that this would be possible. In the end he got it as a gift from the Saudis. At other press events, he wore a T-shirt in the national colors that read “Colors Of Freedom.” The boxing spectacle, which officially bears the unwieldy PR title “Rage on the Red Sea,” is a national event in the country in times of suffering.
Oleksandar Usyk: A story like a heroic tale
Usyk’s story lends itself perfectly as a heroic tale. Almost a year ago, he surprisingly snatched the titles of the WBA, WBO and IBF associations from the rising superstar Anthony Joshua. It was a classic favorite fall. Usyk had risen from cruiserweight and had only completed three heavyweight fights. At 1.91 meters, he is smaller and lighter than 1.98 meter man Joshua. But that evening at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London, the Ukrainian was superior to his British opponent in every respect. With outstanding technique and a lot of speed, he gave the Briton a lesson and won unanimously on points. Now comes the rematch, this time Usyk is the favorite.
It was long open that the duel would take place in the desert. Usyk did not want to leave Kyiv after the war began. He had already been expelled by the Russians once before. Usyk is from Crimea, where he grew up and lived until the Russians invaded the peninsula in 2014 and declared it Russian territory.
When the Russian army invaded another homeland on February 24, 2022, he cried. The beginning of the war coincided with the birthday of his twelve-year-old daughter and he volunteered for a volunteer battalion: “I prayed every day that nobody would kill me and that I wouldn’t have to shoot anyone,” Usyk said of this time.
Visiting injured soldiers changes everything
The plan to defend his homeland rather than step back into the ring changed after he visited a hospital with injured soldiers, Usyk told journalists. The soldiers “begged, begged me to go and get back in the ring against Joshua and represent our country too. They told me it would help the nation even more than if I did fight against Russia at home in army uniform.” Former world champions Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko also influenced Usyk in this way.
British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua is looking to reclaim his title and appeared in good shape going into the fight
© Giuseppe Cacace / AFP
At the end of March he traveled to Poland with a special permit. From there it was off to Dubai for three months to prepare for the fight while Joshua toiled in London. Usyk not only had a goal in mind, but finally answers to the questions of his three children. They wanted to know from their father why someone wanted to kill them. “I then explain to them that the Russians want this because they are weak people,” Usyk said. “And that is also the reason why they will not win the war. We are stronger than them.”
In this spectacle, the Ukraine war overshadows another topic that the Saudi organizers don’t like to talk about: human rights violations in their own country. Of course, the boxing match of the year is also part of a “sportswashing campaign” by the sheikhs, as the German Press Agency noted on the subject. This is matched by the huge purse that the two boxers rake in for the fight in the King Abdullah Sports City Arena. It should be between 50 and 60 million dollars. Officially, there is silence on the subject.
Sources: DPA, Eurosport, “World”, n-tv, “box-sport.de”