The 2012 heavyweight Olympic Gold medalist, Oleksandr Usyk booked his place in the cruiserweight division’s World Boxing Super Series’ finale yesterday.
However, anyone who witnessed the captivating clash would attest to the fight really having the potential to have gone either way as both champions gave a solid account of themselves.
Usyk prevailed on the scorecards in Rega, Latvia. The scorecards read 115-113 on two scorecards, with the other reading an even 114-114.
With the victory, the seasoned Ukranian moved on to the final hurdle before he gets a chance to put his hands on the prestigious Muhammad Ali trophy.
He will now make the trip to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for the tournament final.
He will await the winner of the other semi-final with explosive punchers Russia’s Murat Gassiev and Cuba’s Yunioer Dorticos set to meet on February 3rd in Russia.
Furthermore, with the victory against Briedis, Usyk moved on to the final with both the WBC and WBO world cruiserweight titles.
Usyk unified the WBO title he had previously held with Briedis’ WBC title.
The Latvian made the brighter start, spurred on by a passionate crowd crammed into the Arena Riga. Sharp combinations and accuracy giving him the better of the opening exchanges.
Briedis started the fight in a much brighter fashion that his Ukranian counterpart.
Arguably, he was perhaps buoyed by a boisterous home crowd. Briedis repeatedly found his mark with sharp, accurate combinations in the fight’s opening stanza.
The Latvian found sustained success with the fundamental one,two combination.
The straight jab followed by the straight power hand found Usyk multiple times during the early goings.
The success allowed for Briedis to seize a foothold early and keep the talented Usyk on the back foot.
Usyk did begin to stage a fightback in the fight’s fourth round. By starting to put together some substantial blows as the pair of them began to open up in the middle of the ring.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BebGPFHFIt0/?hl=en&taken-by=usykaa
Briedis responded strongly during the middle rounds. He caught Usyk by surprise with fast starts and again finding success with multi-punch combinations.
As the fight came down the stretch towards the championship rounds, the pace of the action seemingly took a toll on Briedis.
Usyk seemed to be aware that his opponent was waning and began to target the body.
They both brought the curtain down on the epic semi-final in scintillating fashion.
Usyk started the eleventh round like a man possessed and was going for the kill.
The action swung back in the Latvian’s favour however in the fight’s final round with Usyk being hammered by some solid blows after being cut off against the ropes.
Regardless, Usyk is amassing quite the resume. After winning his title, he has made three successful title defences all on the road. That was prior to yesterday’s successful unification in his opponent’s backyard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FRT2J9Ii70
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