Another blow for world boxing, Fury vs. Usyk duel cancelled! Will boxing rekindle the spark of lost glory?

It was to be the greatest fight of this century, a battle of two undefeated boxers! But the unification war for all heavyweight boxing world championship belts Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk was finally cancelled. How big a blow is this for boxing?

Fury vs. Usyk unification fight unfortunately cancelled

Boxing fans are sad. It was supposed to be the biggest boxing event of this century, with undefeated legend and WBC heavyweight world title holder Tyson Fury on one side. On the other, WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO world champion Oleksandr Usyk, also undefeated.

While the Ukrainian has dominated the welterweight division, having unified all the world championship belts there, he has only come to the attention of the general public in recent years. After moving up to heavyweight, he completely obliterated champion Anthony Joshua and took the aforementioned belts from him.

It was Gypsy King who managed to dominate all his opponents throughout his career. He made his presence known the most when he virtually ended the career of Wladimir Klitschko, who had ruled the boxing world since the turn of the century. His trilogy with slugger Deontay Wilder, who destroyed one opponent after another, then cemented his place at the top of the sport.

Fury is not just a champion in the ring, his story and charisma transcends the boundaries of the sport. Thus, the war with Usyk was to be a huge event in the sport that was to return the sport to the limelight of combat sports. However, according to the latest reports, the two camps did not agree on the terms of the contract and the fight was eventually scrapped.

Boxing’s greatest glory days are behind it

This is certainly a huge blow for boxing. The popularity of any sport is defined by the personalities that appear in it. In the last century, boxing was most popularized by Muhammad Ali, whose personality drew fans from all corners of the world to the sport. Ali was not undefeated, but he boxed in the so-called Golden Era of boxing and fought the greatest greats of the sport.

Then, in the last decade of the last century, the scariest man on the planet, Mike Tyson, drew crowds, rousing his opponents from their dreams with a mere glance. But even he faced legendary opponents who would likely reign heavyweight today.

The heavyweight division of boxing is the one that attracts combat sports fans the most. The biggest shots are landed in this division and any one of them can decide any fight. And it’s the heavyweight division that has a problem with a lack of personality and quality in the 21st century.

The biggest numbers in PPV sales in the 21st century are held by Floyd Mayweather, who fought at Welterweight and Middleweight and holds five spots in the top ten biggest PPV broadcasts of the century. The biggest event ever was his fight with Manny Pacquiao in 2015, which generated over 4.5 million PPVs.

He’s been pushed out of the limelight by mixed martial arts

But in recent years, the declining boxing has been displaced by mixed martial arts, which have enjoyed huge popularity among combat sports fans. In particular, the rise of Conor McGregor, who incidentally holds six spots in the aforementioned top ten PPV events, has popularised MMA to the extent that it is gradually pushing boxing out of the limelight among combat sports.

It was the Fury vs. Usyk fight that may have reignited boxing’s spark of lost glory. Unfortunately, it looks like we won’t be seeing this battle of undefeated heavyweights, at least for now. The chance to break through to the top will be given to MMA, which is waiting for the return of the legendary Conor McGregor, who made the sport so famous.

Source: Tapology, Wikipedia