SHOCKING TRUTH REVEALED: The Beltline’s Oleksandr Usyk is NOT the savior we thought…he’s just as easy to buy as anyone else!

FIRST, they are You All right?

I hope so.

It feels really strange sitting here writing about the signing of Oleksandr Usyk with Saudi Arabian-backed Skill Challenge promotions. I guess you may have felt a lot like me: shaken; upset; disappoint; concerned about the well-being of people from all sides of what is happening. And full of questions.

The first of these is probably this: what the heck are Skill Challenge promotions? And the second is probably this: why did Usyk, seemingly in a position of power, decide to swear allegiance to them?

Well, unfortunately, like most things currently trending in an increasingly bizarre world, this is another topic clouded by mystery and gray area. It’s not an easy subject to talk about, nor delve into too much, and only its lingering stench offers an indication that perhaps not all is well as far as sports wellness is concerned.

Alright.

Usyk, we hoped, would be Saudi-proof, naive as that sounds given that one of his biggest victories happened just last year. Certainly though, there was a belief with Usyk, this globetrotting savior of both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, that he would be able to build his own way to the top and not have to rely on Saudi influence to make him fight. only his reputation. he should, in an ideal world, offer. After all, he’s been an anti-establishment man for so long in the best possible way. Content to fight outside Ukraine for years, and for obvious reasons as of late, Usyk has had no problem beating men like Krzysztof Glowacki, Marco Huck, Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev and Tony Bellew in their home countries, and then he did the same in heavyweight with Anthony Joshua in 2021. He was, in other words, a refreshing addition to a sport where much of a boxer’s success rests on winning the pre-fight political power battle. Usyk, unlike the others, seemed baffled by such matters and therefore incorruptible. He got by solely with her skills and his acumen. In both heavyweight and heavyweight, he’s done things right and in his own way.

Plus, in a division where most of the top fighters have tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug, Usyk also has the added benefit of being one of the few who hasn’t so far. That’s not to say he’s a clean fighter, of course, because these days we never know, but clearly, in light of both that and his 20-0 pro record, his reputation is as unblemished as one would expect. can expect from a professional boxer in 2023.

Oleksandr Usyk proudly parades the Ukrainian flag (Getty Images)

That now changes, however, due to his connection to Skill Challenge Promotions and what that says about his character and career. Because it would be remiss of me, or anyone else, to ignorantly approach this partnership as a simple case of a boxer joining a new promotional group to secure fights otherwise too difficult to pull off. That, in 2023, would be an extremely naïve view, especially since we now know enough about it, as a sport, to know why and how the biggest fights in the Middle East are taking place.

The fact that Usyk chose to stain himself like this is a disappointment to anyone who believed they were better than this or, simply, superior to that. In the eyes of some, those who responded with an “Oh no, not Oleksandr too” to the news of this deal, is something of the final nail. After all, what kind of message does it send if aligning with Saudi Arabia is the only way to advance the bigger fights? Not a good one, that’s for sure. Dig even a little deeper and you’ll realize that many fights going on elsewhere, including the UK, have a certain Middle Eastern flavor to them these days, though never overbearing or too powerful once it hits the tongue and rear. of the throat. In fact, speaking to someone in the industry last week disappointed by what’s going on, I was reminded, rather insightfully, that “many of the people who talk the loudest on social media and do the most interviews with these channels YouTube, they’re just into boxing as public faces for the people behind the scenes.It’s either that or they literally get paid by them to get a job in the sport.

True or not, boxing is facing a major challenge at the moment, made all the more difficult by the sudden prevalence of Middle Eastern money in the wider sporting world. Every day, it seems, high-profile footballers just past their prime are being wooed by astronomical contracts to play in Saudi Arabia and, let’s face it, it’s tough for as long as it’s been going on – and Formula 1 and the golf – coming down heavily on boxing for essentially doing the same: going where the money is. That said, as always with boxing, there is an added layer of grime and mystery to what is currently unfolding and unlike football, this global religion, one wonders what kind of state a sport of niche like boxing if certain powers were prevented almost single-handedly from sustaining it and ensuring its functioning. If, to put it another way, this flow of money has suddenly been cut off at the source, does boxing still have enough autonomy to sustain itself the old-fashioned way (through ticket sales and television money)?

It seems highly unlikely, which is concerning. What is equally concerning, however, is how quickly everything has been normalized and accepted, this notion that the biggest heavyweight fights have to take place in the Middle East, where both money and secrets are kept. In a way, it’s like all the key players in the sport have settled for Rosemary’s baby approach to reclaim power and secure what they want out of life. Otherwise struggling, they have, like Guy Woodhouse, struck a deal with the devil, sold their souls and watched their fortunes change overnight. They then impregnated others, like Oleksandr Usyk, with their dirty seed and left them with a choice in the end which becomes no choice. If you want to be exactly what you always wanted to be (in Rosemary’s case, a mother; in Oleksandr’s case, a stinkingly rich heavyweight champion), you have to look your offspring in the eye and make peace with the fact that they are yellow, just like his father’s.