Andre Ward was in the dark about Oleksandr Usyk just this past Thursday.
"Usyk seems fine, but I don’t really know much about him," Ward told Sporting News while doing promotion for "The Contender" reality series. "I just found out about him probably six months ago when people were kind of linking our names together. I said, ‘Who is this?’ I knew he was in some tournament. He seems to be a good talent."
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Well, if Ward genuinely didn't know much about Usyk then, he definitely knows more about him now. That's because, roughly 48 hours later, Usyk flattened Tony Bellew via an eighth-round knockout at Manchester Arena. And this wasn't any ordinary knockout. It was a pulverizing left-handed chin check that definitively ended Bellew's career, while sending shivers throughout the boxing world.
Like Ward, if you didn't know him before, you know him now. This is Oleksandr Usyk ... one bad man.
The Ukrainian spent 2018 thoroughly cleaning out the cruiserweight division, defeating Mairis Briedis by majority decision in January and Murat Gassiev via unanimous decision in July to win the World Boxing Super Series and unify the cruiserweight division as its undisputed king. That was before blasting Bellew on Saturday. Remember, Usyk called Bellew out of retirement after winning the WBSS, only to send him back into retirement the hard way — on his back, glazed eyes looking up at the blurry lights.
The four cruiserweight titles (WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO) Usyk holds are proof he has dominated the division, lending more credence to his plans to move to heavyweight ... and soon.
That is, unless the "Son of God" returns to the ring and changes those plans. Ward can redirect that trajectory if he ends his retirement and dons a pair of gloves once again.
Outside of Floyd Mayweather Jr., you'd be hard-pressed to name a boxer of this generation as cerebral in the Sweet Science as Ward was through the years, surgical with his ability to pick and land clean punches, while defending seamlessly like he's pushing a stealth-mode button.
Ward has altered the paths of careers from Carl Froch to "Bad" Chad Dawson, plus Edwin Rodriguez and Sullivan Barrera, before punctuating his ledger with back-to-back wins over Sergey Kovalev.
When Ward (32-0, 16 KOs) scored a unanimous decision victory over Kovalev in November 2016, it was shrouded in controversy.
But there wasn't any controversy when the "S.O.G." delivered an eighth-round TKO in their rematch about seven months later. And that spoke to Ward's underappreciated greatness because the "Krusher" was one of boxing's most ferocious punchers at the time — kind of like Usyk is feared to be now.
Leading up to the Bellew-Usyk fight, Ward gave a slight nod to his fellow "Creed" cast member, Bellew, to win the bout, reasoning to SN, "I haven’t seen enough of Usyk" and "a lot of times boxing fans get super excited with a small sample size."
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Well, Usyk's sample size grew to 16-0 with 12 KOs to his name Saturday.
The 31-year-old Ukrainian entered the bout staring at Bellew in the middle of the ring with his signature crazed eyes — think Jack Nicholson's "The Shining" or Sycho Sid from WWE fame. Usyk ended the bout, staring down at the English boxer, who was laid out on his back.
Ward, 34, did tell SN on Thursday that he doesn't feel like that guy to bring him out of retirement is available.
"I don’t feel like that guy exists right now," Ward said. "Maybe at a higher weight class, but somewhere at 175 [pounds] or cruiserweight — there’s nobody that really exists. I don’t even know if I could make 175. I can make it, but I don’t know if I would be any good doing it."
Perhaps Usyk's performance Saturday will make Ward think twice about that. And if that doesn't work, perhaps throwing millions at Ward to take such a fight would. Ward did tell "The Rich Eisen Show" last week that "I honestly hope the phone doesn’t ring with a serious carrot, I’ll just say that," adding, "so please don’t call."
But just maybe a call about Usyk helps change that. Usyk has mentioned moving up to heavyweight to face unified heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua — as has Ward, whether he was serious or not.
Well, perhaps Ward could cut Usyk off at the pass and reduce the Ukrainian's icy stare into tears, the way Usyk did with Bellew.
If there's one man to do it, it's the "Son of God."
