Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, Rocky Marciano, Lennox Lewis, Muhammad Ali of course, were all one simple thing – the heavyweight champion of the world.
They were also some of the greatest sportsmen in history and luminous personalities who dominated their boxing eras.
And the winner of Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk will belong in their company.
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Fury-Usyk on Saturday will unify the WBO, WBA, IBF and WBC heavyweight titles. This fight at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh will crown the first four-belt undisputed heavyweight champion and the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis.
It matters, and a place in history alongside those great names, those true legends, will belong to the winner of this fight.
Legendary promoter Bob Arum, who first staged fights with Muhammad Ali and now represents Fury, believes this fight will live up to this moment.
“I think it’ll be a very exciting fight,” he told Sky Sports. “On paper it’s a great fight. I think it will be a great fight, but again you have to see how it turns out.”
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The main thing is – it’s happening. No more cuts, no more delays, Fury vs Usyk is just one day away.
“The public doesn’t understand the idea of multiple champions. It’s very good for boxing to have one champion which everybody can look up to as being the king of boxing and that’s the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world,” Arum said.
“Particularly in the heavyweight division, it cries out for one champion and we’re beginning to see that in the lighter weight divisions with [Naoya] Inoue being undisputed, Canelo being undisputed and I think the more we arrive at that, particularly in the heavyweight division, the better off the sport of boxing will be.”
Arum sees echoes of Ali in Fury. “Tyson like Ali is larger than life and he’s not like an ordinary fighter,” he said. “He’s something that is different because he’s someone that rises above, his personality is off the chart.
“I don’t think I would have been successful with Fury, the fights that I promoted for him in the United States unless I had first promoted Muhammad Ali. Because after promoting Ali and the kind of personality he had, I could deal with Tyson Fury.”
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It’s an epic moment for British boxing to have Fury, a man from Morecambe, not only in this fight but tipped by many to win it.
Frank Warren, who co-promotes Fury with Arum, said: “This is the biggest fight any of our British fighters have had bar none. [If Fury wins] he’s done something no one else has done. He’s unified the four belts.
“It’s the blue ribband division, it’s the division everybody’s interested in. The heavyweight champion since I was a kid and long before I was born was always one of the most famous, if not the most famous sportsmen on the planet. Go back to Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, go all the way through, you’re talking about Louis, Marciano all the way up there, Ali, Foreman, Frazier, Mike Tyson, keep going.
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“We’re in such a good place as a sport and they’re such good things happening you just can’t see it ending, because there’s so many good fights to be made.”
Boxing will finally get that heavyweight champion, as long as there is a winner. There was a notorious draw in Lennox Lewis’ first fight with Evander Holyfield for the undisputed crown.
“I mean a controversial draw which Lennox Lewis won,” Arum said.
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“The people out there want to know who is the baddest man on the planet and that is the heavyweight champion of the world,” the Top Rank boss continued.
“They don’t want to hear there are two heavyweight champions, three heavyweight champions. They want one heavyweight champion and if all’s well on Saturday night we’ll have one guy who will be the undisputed heavyweight champion.”
He added: “My feeling is we have two warriors here fighting for supremacy so I really believe that it will be one of the great fights of our time.”
It’s one of the biggest sporting events in a generation. Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk collide for the undisputed world heavyweight championship on Saturday May 18, live on Sky Sports Box Office. Book the fight now.
