Eight years ago: Oleksandr Oleksandrovych "The Cat" Usyk vs. Thabiso Desmond Leon "The Rock" Mchunu

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The first ever world title defense of the Ukrainian - set to make his career tenth overall this coming Saturday. Since he fought Mchunu, eight of his eleven bouts have been successful world title defenses at either CW or HW (excluding only Witherspoon, Joshua 1, and Chisora).

Mchunu no longer had the same aura he did before losing to Makabu, but was still perceived as dangerous and was only the second fellow southpaw Usyk faced in the pros. The first was in his previous contest, deflowering and dethroning Krzysztof Henryk Głowacki on the champ's native soil in Poland. Many fans had known of Usyk since the amateurs, but most casuals probably didn't get wise until he beat the Pole for a belt. For many of them, Mchunu was the "okay, just how legit is this guy?" performance. It was also Usyk's debut in the USA, in an HBO co-main event.

Turns out he was pretty legit.

Final stats:

Jabs
Usyk 66 of 311, 21.2%
Mchunu 30 of 157, 19.1%

Power
Usyk 97 of 206, 47.1%
Mchunu 46 of 121, 48%

Total
Usyk 163 of 517, 31.5%
Mchunu 76 of 278, 27.3%

Usyk outlanded Mchunu in seven rounds (by quadruple in a couple) before stopping him in the ninth. As dominant as you can get - but for some, doubt lingered on until he literally cleaned out the division.

South Africans collectively are 0-4 (stopped 4x) in the pros against Usyk. Nobody has stepped up to bat since Mchunu.

 

He was red hot after that run of (mostly) success versus his countrymen - Groenewald, Bruwer, Venter x2, and Simba x2 with the only hiccup being the Mwekassa upset...then icing on the cake is when he announced himself on the world stage by dominating Eddie Chambers in his CW debut. And mind you, Fast Eddie had just fought on very competitive terms with Adamek at heavyweight and had been a longtime top contender, so most favored him to walk through this unknown African. Then dropping and beating Durodola, then coasting past Wilson, and being up on the cards when Makabu stopped him. Stock was still pretty high when he fought Usyk, although he was a 10/1 underdog. (Usyk's own stock was pretty high after Głowacki)

Easy to picture a reality with Mchunu maneuvered a bit more carefully and bagging a belt.