Oleksandr Usyk showed his greatness on Saturday night in the way he beat Anthony Joshua and won three heavyweight world titles.
Usyk knew Joshua was the bigger man, and understood that he had this aura about him; Joshua's a big heavyweight, and Usyk had only a few fights in the division after all of his success at cruiserweight. But all along in his heart, Usyk believed.
And then Usyk went out there, looked phenomenal and had the fight of his life. Now he's the heavyweight champion of the world. It's so impressive because it was exactly the fight that Usyk envisioned having. He put it out into the world that he wanted the fight with Joshua, envisioned how he would win and then he did it.
Usyk is in some rarefied air now. He's only the fifth southpaw in boxing history to hold a heavyweight world title, period. He's the second southpaw to win a heavyweight world title after moving up in weight. The first guy to do it was Michael Moore, who jumped up from light heavyweight and skipped cruiserweight altogether, and eventually upset Evander Holyfield. And Usyk is right there with Holyfield and David Haye, too, as the only undisputed cruiserweight champions to come up and win world titles at heavyweight. On top of all that, he has an Olympic gold medal.
Now he has three titles, and he's probably going to contend for the fourth down the line against the winner of Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder 3. It's just a heck of an accomplishment.
So how did he do it?
