My sports moment of the year: Fury and Usyk ring walks defy belief
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For the first time in 24 years, an undisputed heavyweight champion would be crowned. But after months of false starts and delays, the sporting gravity of the situation only became clear when the ring walks began. It is a surreal thing to see history unfold in real time before it has yet become history. That was the experience of watching Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk’s first clash, from ringside, as they warred over the right to be called undisputed heavyweight champion.
![[Oleksandr Usyk before his first fight, and victory, over Tyson Fury]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/24/10/newFile-2.jpg)
It was a title that no man had held in 24 years – not since Lennox Lewis gave up one of his belts, a year after beating Evander Holyfield. A year before Fury and Usyk first shared a ring, on 18 May 2024, they seemed to be on the verge of agreeing to a bout. Petty squabbles over money, when each man was already guaranteed a life-changing amount, delayed the fight. “Delayed” is the word we can use now; at the time, it appeared the fight might have been lost forever.
![[Lennox Lewis was the last undisputed heavyweight champion before Usyk]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/24/10/GettyImages-2153591062.jpg)
It was then signed in autumn 2023, to take place this February, but with Fury first facing Francis Ngannou – a former UFC champion, a boxing debutant. Despite the Cameroonian’s inexperience in the boxing ring, Fury scorned the decision to announce his fight with Usyk before he had even beaten Ngannou.
![[Evander Holyfield, whom Lewis beat to become undisputed, also entered the ring in Riyadh]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/24/10/GettyImages-2153571205.jpg)
Fury was right to be wary but it was seemingly a superstitious feeling; he had not been wary enough of Ngannou to train properly, it appeared, as the mixed martial artist dropped Fury in the early rounds – in one of the most shocking scenes in boxing history. That is no hyperbole.
![[Fury awaits the first bell in Riyadh before his undisputed showdown with Usyk]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/24/10/newFile-3.jpg)
