sport news Tyson Fury's defeat by Oleksandr Usyk proved once and for all that the Brit ... trends now

A year or so after Lennox Lewis had become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, he fought David Tua, a heavy-handed New Zealander, in November 2000 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas for the WBC, IBF and IBO versions of the crown.

It was the first time I had been to a heavyweight world title fight in Vegas and I bought into a lot of the hype about Tua’s devastating left hook and the evidence of a record that showed he had knocked out decent fighters like John Ruiz and Hasim Rahman.

The thing was, Tua was a small guy. For a heavyweight boxer, anyway. He was 5ft 10ins tall, compared to Lewis, who was 6ft 5ins and approaching the end of the prime of his career. Still, many wondered whether Tua’s power would discomfort the champion.

Lewis won by what is known in the trade as ‘a lop-sided’ points decision. Which is another way of saying that he won practically every round. It was a dominant victory, so much so that those who had been hoping for fireworks called it a ‘borefest’ and bemoaned its lack of jeopardy.

I still remember it as one of the best boxing displays I have ever seen. It was the sweet science brought to life. Lewis taught Tua, and everybody watching at ringside, a boxing lesson in how to defuse a potentially troublesome opponent.

The champion kept the challenger on the outside the whole time. He made him eat a stiff left jab for round after round after round. He reduced Tua to throwing wild haymakers that swished through fresh air. When the final bell rang, Lewis barely had a mark on him.

To make too close a comparison between Tua and Oleksandr Usyk would be facile. Usyk is a more accomplished fighter. And he is five inches taller than Tua. But the fact remains that when Tyson Fury went into Saturday’s fight with the Ukrainian, he was blessed with many of the same physical advantages over his opponent that Lewis had over Tua.

One of boxing’s oldest adages is that ‘a good big ‘un beats a good little ‘un’ and maybe that was why the majority of the sport’s pundits went for Fury to beat Usyk in Riyadh. But Fury does not have the same skills, the same ability or the same intelligence that Lewis had and he could not get the job done.

There were times, in the middle rounds of their epic encounter in Saudi Arabia, when Fury did make the fight look like a physical mismatch but then he became distracted by the need to taunt Usyk and showboat for the audience and he allowed Usyk, a master strategist, to adapt his plan and claw his way back into the fight. No wonder that Lewis, who was at ringside, criticised Fury’s tactics.

Much of the aftermath of the fight has centred on praising a remarkable performance from Usyk, whose split decision victory over Fury made him the first fighter to hold the undisputed version of the heavyweight crown since Lewis all those years ago. The win has established the Ukrainian as, inarguably, the greatest heavyweight of this generation.

There has also been much comment about the boorish behaviour of Fury and his entourage before and after the fight. His dad, John, headbutted a member of Usyk’s crew in the days leading up to the clash and Fury, himself, suggested after the fight that Usyk had won because people ‘are siding with a country at war’.