Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk vs. Tyson Luke Fury & Jai Opetaia vs. Mairis Briedis II - RBR.

Fury did land what appeared to be the harder punches in the frame, so I could see it going the other way, but Usyk did indeed land more and landed well enough to make the round close but clear in my eyes, too.

 

I wonder what it would take to get to 5K.

Had he beaten Usyk, then maybe Fury could have versus Joshua.

I'm not sure Canelo vs. Bud would even crack 4,000.

Inoue vs. Ioka would titillate my little boxing nerd heart, and be perhaps the highest gate of all time in Japan - but globally? Not a needle mover; lucky to maybe do twenty-five hundred replies and that only with a solid undercard.

The sport en masse just doesn't have the starpower currently (let alone two candidates near each other enough in weight to pair up) for yesterday to be outstripped anytime soon, IMO.

 

Actually I felt a little sorry when Usyk was punching him to KO. He looked like an old man being beaten up.

 

A stacked card filled with 50-50 heavyweight matchups. That´s the formula.

 

Idk man. You could slap together any combination of Kabayel, Parker, Hrgović, Zhāng, Dubois, Anderson, Joyce and Wilder in a quintuple-header topped by Usyk vs. Joshua III, and it's no guarantee to hit 5k.

 

Usyk Fury doesn't seem that big in America. I've noticed little to no mainstream media coverage here. And I recall quite a bit of that during the Wilder Fury fights. America seems to only love the HW division when an American is in the ring.

 

How about we sprinkle in 60 minute breaks between the fights and add mini concerts to each walkout? That should get a few extra replies.

 

Wild Usyk Joshua Fury generation outpace the engagement of Pac/Floyd generation. Floyd/Manny felt like monumental events back in the day especially on this forum.

 

If the fight was here, it would have been covered and promoted differently.

And by 'differently', I meant 'better'.

 

It's numbers, way more people on here now than then

 

That's part of it too. Which is weird as boxing, like I said earlier, has less real global starpower than it did then. Mayweather and Pacquiao were literally household names; people from every demographic had at least heard of them whether they'd ever watched a round of boxing in their lives. Same with DLH before them, the 1980s middleweight Fab Four, Tyson/Lewis/Holyfield, Ali/Frazier/Foreman, etc.

I think online spaces have grown exponentially, in the last decade-plus (even somewhat passe platforms like a traditional message board such as this one), that's a big part of it - and much as I hate to credit them, spectacles like celebrity/white-collar fights (especially involving young content creators with huge social media followings) have brought lots of eyeballs that would otherwise never have been interested.

 

Seeing how he could win a rematch is a far cry from it being Fury's fight to win.

 

You've been a busy lad. Thanks for the effort.

 

And the bell. If Usyk had another clear 15 seconds or so after the count it could have been game over.

I'll give it to Fury for his recovery powers though. He was pretty much sound coming out for the 10th.

 

forgive my self quote but, for the record, my card

Usyk Fury

1) 10 - 09
2) 10 - 09 20 - 18
3) 09 - 10 29 - 27
4) 09 - 10 38 - 38
5) 09 - 10 47 - 48
6) 09 - 10 56 - 58
7) 10 - 09 66 - 67 close
8) 10 - 09 76 - 76
9) 10 - 08 86 - 84 should be 10-7 or 10-6 or KO
10) 10 - 09 96 - 93
11) 10 - 09 106 - 102
12) 10 - 09 116 - 111 close