Footage of Oleksandr Usyk being dropped by Artur Beterbiev shows potential route to victory for Tyson Fury
Today at 09:21 AM
From Fury and Joshua to Dubois and Bellew, Oleksandr Usyk has fought the best of the absolute best – but did you know that he's also faced now-undisputed light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev?
Not only did Usyk and Beterbiev lock horns on three separate occasions in the amateur scene, but footage of the light heavyweight champion dropping the Ukrainian has revealed a potential route to victory for Tyson Fury.
Oleksandr Usyk vs Artur Beterbiev shows potential route to victory for Tyson Fury
If 'The Gypsy King' is to get his revenge over Oleksandr Usyk this coming weekend, he'll need to draw on every minute of experience from his career in the ring, and every frame of video footage from Usyk's previous fights.
The Ukrainian might be undefeated as a professional, but 'The Cat' suffered 15 losses as an amateur – including one of three bouts against the now-undisputed light heavyweight champion, Artur Beterbiev.
Their original clash came in 2007, with Beterbiev earning the decision win, before Usyk got his revenge; first in the Quarterfinals of the 2011 Amateur Boxing Championships, and then a second time at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.
With Usyk vs Fury 2 on our immediate horizon, it’s that second bout with Beterbiev that's the important one here.
Whilst Usyk was able to get his hand raised thanks to his patented superior footwork and ring IQ, the Ukrainian was badly dropped in the third round when Beterbiev landed a beautiful right hook to the body.
Being dropped with a body shot from Beterbiev is certainly nothing to be ashamed of.
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But if you look at video footage from other moments of danger in Usyk's career, it's clear that he is vulnerable to those types of punches.
In fact, there's an argument that Usyk has been hurt by body shots far more than strikes to the head over the course of his illustrious career.
About two years ago, YouTube account 'Fighter Channel 2' uploaded a short compilation of every single time that cameras have captured Usyk being either knocked down or wobbled – out of the seven examples shown, the first four are all body shots.
More recently, Daniel 'Dynamite' Dubois was able to force Usyk to the canvas in their 2023 showdown in Poland; however, that punch was deemed to have landed just below the belt line, with Dubois' bid to get the result changed to a No Contest being rejected by the WBA.
Tyson Fury has demonstrated his KO power on numerous occasions, and fans would do well to remember that he dropped Deontay Wilder with a nasty body shot in the fifth round of their own rematch in 2020.
Speaking via Boxing Media earlier this week, promoter Frank Warren revealed what he does and doesn't want to see out of 'The Gypsy King' as he hunts the stoppage win in Riyadh.
"I don't want to see the showboating… I want to see him focused, I want to see what he did in rounds three through seven in the [first] fight, where he was very much on top controlling the fight with his jab – that's what I want to see. And he's capable of doing that."
"Certainly, in that seventh round, he [Usyk] wobbled back to the corner, but it wasn't to be… He's got to be really, really focused and [on it] 100% of the time… He's got that [finish] in his head, there's no doubt about that."
Can Tyson Fury stop Oleksandr Usyk? Can he do it with a body shot? Find out on December 21.
