FIRSTLY, are you okay?
I hope so.
It feels very unusual certainly sitting right here writing about Oleksandr Usyk signing with Saudi Arabia-backed Talent Problem Promotions. I think about you might need been feeling lots like I’ve: shaken; troubled; let down; frightened for the wellbeing of individuals on all sides of what’s been occurring. And stuffed with questions.
The primary of these might be this: What on earth is Talent Problem Promotions? And the second is probably going this: Why has Usyk, seemingly able of energy, determined to now pledge his allegiance to them?
Nicely, sadly, like most issues at present trending in a world more and more weird, that is yet one more topic clouded in thriller and gray space. It’s not a topic straightforward to speak about, nor examine too deeply, and solely its lingering stench presents a sign that every one is probably not constructive so far as the wellbeing of the game is worried.
Oh effectively.
Usyk, we hoped, can be Saudi-proof, as naïve as that will sound given certainly one of his greatest wins occurred on the market solely final 12 months. Actually, although, there was a perception with Usyk, this globetrotting saviour of each cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, that he would be capable of assemble his personal path to the highest and never must depend on Saudi affect to get him the fights his popularity alone ought to, in a perfect world, ship. He was, in any case, for thus lengthy a person anti-establishment in the easiest way doable. Content material to battle exterior Ukraine for years, and for apparent causes of late, Usyk had no challenge beating males like Krzysztof Glowacki, Marco Huck, Mairis Briedis, Murat Gassiev and Tony Bellew of their residence international locations, after which did the identical at heavyweight with Anthony Joshua in 2021. He was, in different phrases, a refreshing addition to a sport during which a lot of a boxer’s success is based on successful the pre-fight political energy battle. Usyk, not like the remainder, appeared nonplussed by such issues and subsequently incorruptible. He bought by purely on his abilities and acumen. At each cruiserweight and heavyweight, he did issues the precise method and his personal method.
What’s extra, in a division during which many of the high fighters have examined constructive for a performance-enhancing drug, Usyk additionally comes with the added bonus of being one of many few who to this point hasn’t. That’s to not recommend he’s a clear fighter, after all, for as of late we simply by no means know, however clearly, in mild of each this and his 20-0 professional report, his popularity is about as stain-free as you’ll be able to anticipate from knowledgeable boxer in 2023.
Oleksandr Usyk proudly parades the Ukrainian flag (Getty Pictures)
That now adjustments, nevertheless, resulting from his linkup with Talent Problem Promotions and what this says about his character and profession. As a result of it might be remiss of me, or anybody, to ignorantly strategy this partnership as merely a case of a boxer becoming a member of a brand new promotional group so as to safe fights in any other case too troublesome to make. That, in 2023, can be a view naïve within the excessive, particularly as we all know sufficient by now, as a sport, to know why and the way the most important fights are taking place within the Center East.
That Usyk has elected to sully himself on this method comes as a disappointment to anybody who believed he was higher than that or, merely, above that. Within the eyes of some, those that responded with an ‘Oh no, not Oleksandr as effectively’ response to the information of this deal, it’s one thing like the ultimate nail. In any case, what sort of message does it ship if aligning with Saudi Arabia is the one method for the most important fights to get made? Not a very good one, that’s for certain. Dig a bit deeper, too, and also you’ll come to grasp that loads of fights being made elsewhere, together with within the UK, have a sure Center Japanese flavour to them as of late, albeit by no means overbearing or too highly effective a style as soon as it hits the tongue and the again of the throat. Final week, actually, when talking with somebody within the trade disillusioned with what’s occurring, I used to be reminded, quite perceptively, that “lots of the individuals who communicate loudest on social media, and do essentially the most interviews with these YouTube channels, are solely in boxing as public faces for folks behind the scenes. Both that or they’re actually being paid by them to have a job within the sport.”
True or not, boxing is going through a serious problem in the intervening time, one made all of the tougher by the sudden prevalence of Center Japanese cash within the wider sporting world. Each day, it appears, high-profile footballers simply previous their prime are being wooed by astronomical contracts to play in Saudi Arabia and, admittedly, it’s exhausting for as lengthy that’s occurring – and the Method One, and the golf – to return down too closely on boxing for basically doing the identical: going the place the cash is. That stated, as all the time with boxing, there may be an additional layer of grime and thriller to what’s at present unfolding and, not like soccer, this world faith, one wonders what kind of state a distinct segment sport like boxing would discover itself in if sure powers had been prevented from nearly single-handedly propping it up and guaranteeing it perform. If, to place it one other method, this stream of cash was out of the blue minimize off at supply, does boxing nonetheless have sufficient autonomy to maintain itself the old style method (by means of ticket gross sales and tv cash)?
It appears extremely unlikely, which is a fear. What’s simply as worrying, although, is how rapidly it has all been normalised and accepted, this concept that the most important heavyweight fights should happen within the Center East the place each the cash and secrets and techniques are stored. In some methods, it’s as if all the important thing gamers within the sport have settled for the Rosemary’s Child strategy to claiming energy and securing what they need from life. In any other case struggling, they’ve, like Man Woodhouse, minimize a cope with the satan, bought their soul, and seen their fortunes change in a single day. They’ve then impregnated the others, like Oleksandr Usyk, with their soiled seed and left him with a alternative on the finish that turns into no alternative in any respect. If you wish to be the very factor you might have all the time wished to be (in Rosemary’s case, a mom; in Oleksandr’s case, a stinking wealthy heavyweight champion), you could look into the eyes of your offspring and make peace with the very fact they’re yellow, identical to their father’s.
