Sometimes when arguing about nothing you can lose sight of what is really important. You can, in the context of the pound-for-pound debate, find yourself so invested in proving that either Oleksandr Usyk or Terence Crawford deserves to be number one that you fail to appreciate the fact that both are closer to 40 than 30 and producing their best form at a time when most tend to show signs of regression.
In the end that, more than the order in which they sit, is the important part of any pound-for-pound debate. That is the thing that should stand out when looking at all those numbers – wins, weight classes conquered, titles won – and wondering which of the two, Usyk or Crawford, is a cat’s whisker better than the other. That is the thing boxing fans should celebrate and consider rather unique.
It is true that all legacies require time; meaning it would be unusual to see a “young” fighter topping a pound-for-pound list. But equally, it is just as true that a fighter approaching 40 is deemed to have not only secured their legacy by that stage but is now more likely to damage it than enhance it. They are, at that kind of age, expecting that tap on the shoulder from Father Time whenever they set foot in the ring and would expect by now to have shown hints of wear and tear and deterioration. They might, for instance, not be winning fights as easily as before, or not pulling the trigger so readily. Their punch resistance, too, might have now started to wane, and in once clear and certain minds there may now be an element of doubt. Maybe some hesitation. Maybe even some fear; a fear of getting hurt, a fear of The End, a fear of retirement, silence, insignificance.
Alert to these signs, opponents gathering around them will have started to lick their lips and figure out when to time the attack to give them the best chance of exploiting their demise. They will know that the passing of the torch must happen at some stage and will believe that, at 38, the time is nigh.
In the case of Usyk and Crawford, however, this trend has been bucked, time has slowed, and potential heirs must wait. Crawford, now a super-middleweight, turns 38 on Sunday, while Usyk, the heavyweight champion, is already there, and yet their unbeaten records remain intact. Neither man lost early on in their career and there is little indication that they will start to lose now, as they both edge closer to 40. If fact, so dominant are Usyk and Crawford these days, the biggest threat to their zero is not so much a specific opponent as their own greed – their desire to keep going, their reluctance to call it quits. It is often then, when a good thing is prolonged in the name of greed and/or fear, that a defeat becomes a sudden possibility for imperious fighters like Usyk and Crawford. Both are masters of timing, yet the true test of their mastery is just around the corner. Time it right and both could conceivably retire undefeated either next year or the following year. Time it right and there’s every reason to believe perfection can be achieved by not one current fighter but two.
As for how they have managed this feat, one can only propose that they are generational talents who just so happened to have coexisted at the same moment in time. They don’t come around often, nor is their success comparable to many who came before them, but men like Usyk and Crawford show that a fighter can continue to thrive in the latter stages of their career if they look after themselves in its early and middle stages. That applies to diet and training, and how they live, but it also applies to how they control fights and how they protect themselves in the ring. With Usyk and Crawford, you are dealing with a couple of master tacticians, two men who know both how to win and how to reduce the damage accrued in the process of winning. Neither are negative, or dull, but are instead always thinking, plotting, and doing exactly what is required to get the win in the cleanest way possible. This approach has enabled their longevity and allowed them to flourish in the final chapters of their respective careers. What has also helped, with that mission in mind, is the fact that both are technical rather than just athletically gifted or reliant on one particularly facet. In a word, they are well-rounded. They do everything correctly and have different tools for different jobs, comforted by the knowledge that in their toolbelt they possess a tool for every job. They are not superhuman types, athletically speaking, nor do they boast one trick likely to one day be figured out and taken away from them. Rather, the key to their longevity can be found in the basics. It is found in doing things right, according to the book, and it is found in punches and moves that will always be available to them, regardless of how old they get and the inevitable slowing of hands and feet.
Even if that should happen, and it will, the difference between what Usyk and Crawford could do in their prime and what they can do at the finish line will be negligible and nowhere near as alarming as it is for others. After all, unlike some of their pound-for-pound predecessors, Usyk and Crawford are not athletes first and boxers second. They are boxers first and boxers second. Their athleticism, rather than a jumping off point, comes as a byproduct of their training and their commitment to the sport. No corners were cut in the making of these two fighters. They learnt the whole alphabet, A through to Z.
When you have the full vocabulary, it would appear you stand a much greater chance of going longer. Better yet, by the time you have mastered what you do well, technically speaking, you will have likely accumulated all manner of experiences in the ring and now enjoy the composure and confidence this wealth of knowledge brings. Of this you see evidence whenever men like Usyk and Crawford enter the ring and start setting traps for their opponents. You can see how a combination of technical mastery and collected experience has brought them to where they are today – dominant, peerless, enduring.
Not content with ruling one weight class, Usyk and Crawford have both moved up and done the same at other weights and now, in the name of competition, they are pitted against each other, hypothetically, in the pound-for-pound debate. Until recently, most people agreed that Usyk, 24-0 (15 KOs), belonged in first place on the list and that Crawford, 42-0 (31), was in second. However, Crawford’s decision win against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez 11 days ago has caused some to rethink that order. Now, with further evidence of Crawford’s greatness to hand, they must try to work out how Crawford outpointing Alvarez at super-middleweight compares with Usyk knocking out Daniel Dubois in five rounds at heavyweight. Now they must decide which of the two weight-jumpers was at a greater disadvantage when securing their latest victory and convince themselves there is a right and wrong answer to both this question and others like it.
Yet the ranking, of course, ultimately means nothing. What matters is that they are both there at the top, looking up, not down. What matters is that they are still doing their best work at a time when we would expect the complete opposite. What matters most is that we, the audience, get to watch not one but two generational talents – three if you count Naoya Inoue, the consensus third best fighter in the world – ply their trade at the same time and defy what it means to grow old in a young man’s game.
Who knows, perhaps Oleksandr Usyk and Terence Crawford stand as proof that boxing’s not such a young man’s game after all. Perhaps arguing the merits of a pound-for-pound number one is the young man’s game. Some might even call it a mug’s game.
