BY KUNLE AWOSIYAN
The world did not just love Muhammad Ali, the legend occupied every enviable position either as a ring magazine champion, lineal belt holder or undisputed champion that he defended for more than a decade between 1964 and 1978.
After he was stripped off his WBC belt for not going to Vietnam war, Ali came back to compete, losing once to Joe Frazier and defeating the champion twice in a trilogy to re-register his dominance in the ring.
He became a ring magazine champion for defeating another champion and unified the two belts IBF and WBC at the time. He was not just a lineal champion, he was a unified and undisputed pugilist.
Joe Frazier was able to defend his undisputed status four times while Mike Tyson did so six times as undisputed. George Foreman defended it twice and despite Larry Holmes long stay in the ring, he was never an undisputed champion because he could not unified all the belts for six years of his reigns.
Even though the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir dominated the boxing stage for almost a decade, none of them won the undisputed crown. Their best was the unified championship.
The Americans have a way of churning out the undisputed but only Ali and Tyson after the likes of Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis held the title for so long a time, making this position so prestigious for an ambitious boxer.
It is not surprising that the Ukrainian, Oleksandr Usyk is seriously longing to have this coveted crown. He achieved it as a cruiserweight and he is so desirous of it at the heavyweight division after which he will quit for another trade.
Becoming an undisputed champion can be a short Journey or a long one depending on the policy of the organisers, the money involved, the vacant crown and of course the mindset of the gladiators of that era.
It took Buster Douglas a Tyson fight to become the undisputed champion in Tokyo in 1990. He beat Tyson and took all the belts but failed to defend it in his next fight against Evander Holyfield. He was knocked out in round three.
Holyfield defended the undisputed for about three years and nearly lost it to Lennox Lewis in a draw the boxing world described as travesty. Six months after, Lewis unified all the best, becoming the undisputed champion in 2000.
And since then, no one had attained this status in the heavyweight division. Riddick Bowe, one of my favourite boxers of all time was an undisputed champion but he never defended the title.
He dropped all the belts in a thrash can in what was dubbed a duck.from fighting Lewis. Bowe versus Lewis was a great fight that never happened.
While we eagerly wait to see an undisputed fight between Tyson Fury and Usyk, may I say this bout is long overdue and it has been a long journey of over two decades.
Will it happen, it will depend more on Fury whose mindset changes like the flash of light. He said the fight against Usyk will be like him giving birth to a new baby after having about six already.
To him, the unified title does not move him, perhaps because he once had all the belts at different times.
Fury has been a lineal champion, however Usyk is the ring magazine and unified champion now and so desirous to take a step further to become the undisputed.
Can’t wait to see the fight
