After Oleksandr Usyk beats Tyson Fury again, what’s next for heavyweight boxing?

On a night that left no doubt about Oleksandr Usyk’s exalted position in boxing history, one question lingered in the cool Riyadh air: so what?

Not just for the two men who have now shared 24 closely fought rounds of high-level heavyweight boxing, but for the sport’s weight division. Where does it go from here, just after staging back-to-back showdowns between its two best men? When you stand on top of a mountain, there are some places to go anything but down?

The journey to this point started in Düsseldorf just over nine years ago when Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko to change the course of heavyweight history.

Prior to the night of November 28, 2015, Klitschko had ruled the division for nearly a decade, dominating bouts with his strength, speed and knockout power. But when he took on Fury, there was a desire among fans to see something – anything – change. And the Briton delivered, using his mobility, head movement and switch-hitting to outplay a champion who failed to find his rhythm for most of the match.

“This is the best thing to happen to the heavyweight division in years,” tweeted former heavyweight and cruiserweight world champion David Haye after Fury’s hand was raised in victory.

Many will feel that the nine years that have passed since then prove Haye right. We have seen the belts change hands several times, enjoyed exciting and unpredictable fights, witnessed shock defeats like Anthony Joshua’s at the hands of Andy Ruiz, an epic trilogy between Deontay Wilder and Fury, and also the emergence of one of the all-time pound -pound-for-pound big in Usyk’s ability to transfer his cruiserweight dominance to the heavyweight division.

Yes, there have also been fights that could have been made and hadn’t been (or haven’t been, as the case may be), such as those between Joshua and Wilder, and the all-British showdown between Joshua and Fury, but few would argue , that the nine years leading up to Klitschko’s defeat were more entertaining or exciting than the nine submissions (although there is an argument that that view might penalize Klitschko for simply being too good).

Usyk’s second win over Fury in seven months leaves the distinct feeling that the post-Klitschko era is nearing its end. Fury and Usyk are 36 and 37 years old respectively – not ancient in heavyweight terms, but certainly closer to the end of their careers than the start. When asked in the post-fight press conference if we want to see him fight again, a visibly emotional Fury said: “Maybe you can. Maybe you won’t. We’ll talk about that next year.”

As for Usyk, many believed (or perhaps hoped) that another win over Fury would see him saunter off into the sunset, hugging Eeyore toys tucked under one arm and the belts on the other. But no. “I have the will and the power to go on,” the champion told the media in the early hours of this morning.

Before he had even left the ring, he was literally faced with the prospect of what could be next as Great Britain’s Daniel Dubois stepped into the ropes to ‘confront’ him and demand revenge for the defeat he suffered to the Ukrainian in August last year. Unwell stopped Dubois in the ninth round that night, but the 25-year-old challenger felt wronged. He sent Usyk to the canvas with a powerful punch to the beltline in the fifth round, but it was called an illegal low blow by the referee and the Ukrainian was given almost four minutes to recover, which was enough to help him survive. the end of the round – and even finish it strong.

That moment of controversy (or perhaps dispute is a better word) could be considered enough to build a narrative for a rematch between the two, but many also believe that Usyk dominated that fight for nearly every minute of every round, and will claiming that should the two meet again, the result will only be more convincing in his favor.

There is also the small (or not so small) factor of the fight Dubois has scheduled against a resurgent Joseph Parker on February 22, 2025, back in Riyadh, where the IBF world title Dubois picked up after it was vacated by Usyk will. be on the line. Although Dubois has scored impressive wins against Filip Hrgovic and Joshua since his loss to Usyk, Parker has looked just as strong in beating Wilder and Chinese heavyweight Zhilei ‘Big Bang’ Zhang over the past year.

Confronted by Dubois in the moments after his victory last night, Usyk looked at first confused and then unrelenting at the suggestion: “No problem,” he said, looking about as bothered by the prospect as he was by Fury’s baiting during their 11 minutes . face out this week. Addressing Turki Alalshikh, the main figure behind Saudi Arabia’s position at the center of the boxing world, who was sitting ringside, Usyk invited him to “make me fight Daniel Dubois”.

At the moment it felt like something of a comedown. Maybe it’s hard on Dubois, but maybe it’s also an expression of the ridiculously high level Usyk has reached. On Saturday night he defeated a man nearly two years his junior, six inches taller, by a seven inch advantage and nearly four stone heavier. If Fury couldn’t do it because of those advantages, coupled with a similar level of boxing intelligence to Usyk, it’s hard to see Dubois managing to be a better one.

But if Usyk is determined to fight on, then someone has to try. Why not let it be Dubois, who gave it a better shot than most thought he would last year? Usyk turns 38 in January, and while he’s clearly living the life of a professional athlete and looked as fit as ever against Fury, time is undefeated. No human can win that battle. Not even Unsick. Will it catch up to him before Dubois (or even Parker) does? It seems unlikely, but it may be the one thread to hold on to as we look to what lies ahead.

For Fury, the road seems to lead only one way (if he chooses to fight on): the all-British mega-fight with Joshua. When asked after the fight what’s next for Fury, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn said iFL TV: “There’s only one match… this is not the time to start calling the match. You don’t know what Fury will do. Maybe he won’t fight again?”

Pointing out that Fury did well and is by no means “a finished fighter”, Hearn went on to call the fight: “To me, the only fight to make is AJ-Fury… what the public wants, AJ vs Fury is what they always want and it’s time to take that fight.”

Arguably, “the time to make that fight” was June 2020, with both men holding world heavyweight championships and reportedly agreeing to terms for a two-fight deal. Now each has lost twice to Usyk, with Joshua also suffering that loss to Dubois in September this year. Hearn is right that the appetite will still be there for a matchup between two of Britain’s best heavyweights in recent years, but with the caveat that it is five years too late; it’s Britain’s version of Floyd Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao.

Beyond Fury and Usyk, it’s hard to see who the next dominant heavyweight will be. But maybe that’s always the case in sports when someone (or more than one person) seems so far ahead of the rest of the pack.

After Fury beat Klitschko, he went into a depressive state, went up to 28 stone and struggled with alcohol abuse. In 2016, he also received a UK Anti-Doping suspension after returning a sample with elevated levels of nandrolone metabolites in February 2015.

Fury has always denied any wrongdoing and claimed to have ingested the drug by eating uncastrated boar. It wasn’t really until February 2020, when he stopped Wilder to claim the WBC title, that he established his position at the top of the pile. Meanwhile, Joshua made a strong claim to be the dominant heavyweight, but his shock defeat to Ruiz in 2019 dented that significantly.

Looking into the future, we could potentially see the likes of Dubois fighting Germany’s Agit Kabayel (who beat Cuban heavyweight Frank Sanchez last time out), Martin Bakole (who defeated American prospect Jared Anderson so impressively in August), talented Uzbekistani Bakhodir Jalolov (who walked away from professional boxing to win a second Olympic gold medal in Paris this summer) and maybe even Moses Itauma, who turns 20 next week and beat Australia’s Demsey McKean out within two minutes of their fight in Riyadh on the undercard of Usyk v Fury. It should be a step-up fight for the highly-rated Brit, but promoter Frank Warren will need to find a much bigger step up to challenge a fighter who appears to have great potential as a future world champion.

None of these names represent the kind of mega-fights that match Usyk v Fury or even Fury v Joshua, but perhaps we have to accept that we are entering a less celebrated era in the heavyweight division. Sports run in cycles and we’re coming off one that has delivered some great fights in the highest profile event of them all.

The next era will take time to develop and pose a big challenge for all of these names above to match what we have seen in recent years. At this point, it’s hard to see that happening or who leads it with the kind of personality, supreme intelligence and skill we’ve seen from Usyk and Fury, but with the Ukrainian hanging around for now and Fury possibly doing the same , there is still time for the next batch to come through. But the clock is definitely ticking.

(Top photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images)