In his latest column for Boxing Social, Team Usyk’s Russ Anber gives his inside view of the Ukrainian’s heavyweight triumph over a dogged Dereck Chisora at the weekend.
The Matchroom Bubble
I had a great time in London in the Wembley ‘bubble’ for the Usyk vs Chisora heavyweight fight. And, of course, being a member of Usyk’s team I was delighted that he picked up another win to move closer to our dream of him becoming world heavyweight champion.
The whole week was a fabulous experience. I have to tip my hat to the Matchroom crew who made life in the bubble run so smoothly and enjoyably. I really appreciated everything they did. I owe special thanks and mentions to Darren Flowers, Karen Mazzone and Big Neil who’s in charge of security. Their excellent organisation made the stay very smooth and enjoyable, considering everything we are up against with the pandemic it was a really fun environment to be in.
As well as the normal fight week stuff, I got to make an appearance on the ‘Before the Bell’ show with Darren Barker and Chris Lloyd, which was a lot of fun. I even got to do a magic trick on air for David Haye. One of the things that made life in the bubble so enjoyable was that there was a wonderful spirit between the Usyk and the Chisora camps. I never got any sense of ill feeling or animosity between anybody in the camps. That was really refreshing. Both camps showed a lot of class.
David Haye, in particular, was a lot of fun to be around with. Of course, he put the mustard on by hyping the contest all week and did a great job of that. He was very confident and talked up his man’s chances because he understands the business of boxing and that it’s about selling pay-per views. The only negative thing I have to say about the Matchroom bubble is that there was no snooker or pool table in the bubble. Yeah, they had a darts board, so I played a bit of darts in the games room while I was waiting around and hanging out. I would have even tried my luck in the darts tournament if I’d known about it, although my darts are not as good as my snooker or pool that’s for sure!
The Fight
As for the fight itself, well it was terrific. Chisora put in a very game effort, although I completely disagree with those people who piped up online after the fight claiming that Chisora had won or come close to winning. When I think about the scoring of a fight I’m involved in, I often refer to how I was feeling in the corner or what I saw happen while I was in the corner. For example, when Loma lost to Teofimo Lopez a couple of weeks ago, I remember being concerned that he may not have won any of the early rounds and saying that to his manager Egis Klimas. I knew we were far behind at the halfway point and needed to step it up. It’s about gut instinct; when you’ve worked in boxing as long as I have you know when you’re winning and when you’re not.
Now on Saturday night at no point did I feel Usyk was in trouble on the scorecards. Maybe he gave away round one or two, but as each following round passed I watched his punches, his skill and his dominance and I never felt he needed to get working or wasn’t doing enough. There was no panic. Yes, after the ninth round I did scream from the corner for Usyk to work more but that was only because I felt he could back Chisora up and get the stoppage, not because I thought he was in any danger of losing the fight. There were times Usyk was moving forward and could have forced a stoppage – a few times this seemed to happen towards the end of a round and I felt if Usyk had done it earlier in the round then the fight would have been over.
One thing that does concern me with regards to Usyk is the standard of judging we have right now in boxing. I’ve made the point before that fighters such as Usyk and Lomachenko don’t always get the credit they deserve from judges. They’re such good technicians, such good boxers that those judging them don’t see their subtleties, they don’t appreciate their defensive brilliance when, for example, they slip a punch by an inch or two or block a punch, which should prevent it from scoring.
Photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing.
Usyk is so skilful and subtle and that – I think – was part of what led to those two 115-113 cards. I certainly hope judging and scoring issues don’t continue to be a problem in the future for Usyk. At the end of the day, though, we got the win and that’s all that matters. Of course, there are still sceptics out there with regards Usyk at heavyweight. Personally, I don’t see his size as an issue at all. I think he showed power and hurt Chisora at times, maybe it wasn’t one-punch KO power but it was enough power to keep Chisora honest.
Chisora wasn’t walking through him. When Chisora tried to use his size on the inside, Usyk was able to combat and resist that – he wasn’t thrown around like a rag doll or anything. So there’s enough power there, there’s enough speed there and there’s an excellent chin there for Usyk. As well as the discussion about the scorecards, there were a lot of rumours after the fight about Usyk’s left hand and a possible injury to it. And yes, he did hurt his left hand, and as early as the first round. After the fight he specifically said to me: “Russ, it wasn’t the gloves or the hand wraps, this guy is cement!”
In fact, I believe if Usyk hadn’t had such good wraps then probably his hand would have been shattered. He generates a lot of force and he was hitting a hard object in Chisora! After the fight, there was some swelling there. Initial examination didn’t show any sign of a break, but of course he didn’t get an x-ray in the dressing room but we did put some ice on it of course.
Hamburgers
After the fight, Chisora conducted himself with a lot of class. He came into the Usyk dressing room and I thought we was there to take a photo or whatnot, which he did, but then he brought out a take-out bag and started handing out burgers to us all. I hugged him when he handed me that Five Guys burger! I was very happy, it being quite late at night, to get something to eat! And Chisora’s taste in fast food is good. In the States, a lot of people love going to In and Out Burger but personally I prefer Five Guys. The meat’s nicer, it’s a bigger piece of beef and it tastes more natural. Of all the chain restaurants, I’d rate Harvey’s in Canada alongside Five Guys as my favourite, so Chisora chose well and those burgers were a classy gesture on his part!
Wilder vs Breland
On a more serious note, the other heavyweight story doing the rounds over the weekend concerned the latest comments by Deontay Wilder about his defeat to Tyson Fury. I worked as part of Wilder’s team until February 2017 and I don’t really have much to say about the wild allegations he has thrown around.
Ignore the specifics – boxers say all kinds of crazy things and make all sorts of accusations at different times to hype fights or hype potential fights. Whatever, I don’t care. But I will say this: you couldn’t fill a phone box with people who have derogatory things to say about Mark Breland. That guy’s reputation, whether as a boxer, trainer or human being, is one million per cent unimpeachable. He’s been around the game a lot longer than Wilder and when someone attacks the reputation of a man like Mark Breland that bothers me. That bothers me a lot.
Russ Anber was talking to Luke G. Williams.
Main image: Usyk, Chisora, burgers. Photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing.