Fight week in Riyadh, at least to an outsider, is an often ghostly experience. Unless you’re up close and talking to the actual fighters, to Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, or seeing them step off a parked jumbo jet to make their outrageously grand arrivals in front of a small group of local dignitaries, chattering YouTube outlets and jaded reporters, boxing feels like a mysterious rumour from the other side of the world.
It’s hard to gauge how many of the seven million people who live in this vast and teeming city are even aware that Usyk will defend his world heavyweight titles against Fury on Saturday night, in a rematch of their classic first fight in Riyadh just seven months ago. I have spent hours this week in the company of various Uber drivers, as we crisscross the city, and the chattier men tend to ask two questions: where are you from? Why are you here?
My first answer has elicited some pretty informed insights into the surprising rise of Chelsea this season, the inexplicable loss of Arsenal’s creativity and the slow implosion of Manchester City. It says something for the Premier League’s global sway that there is such knowledge of their teams – but it also shows immediate evidence of a real football culture in Saudi Arabia.
The country has just been awarded the 2034 World Cup, in an outrageous stunt engineered by Gianni Infantino and Fifa, but my Uber drivers seem more intent on telling me how much they dislike Cristiano Ronaldo despite his enduring presence in this city while playing for Al-Nassr. They do not seem to care too much either for Neymar, recovering from yet another injury at Al-Hilal. Similar knockabout stuff can be heard in taxis around the world every day.
But when they learn that I am in town for the boxing, this strange word usually causes confusion. Eventually, a pair of bunched hands are raised to denote old-fashioned fisticuffs. This results in belated exclamations of recognition, and hazy memories of their first fight in May, but I’ve yet to meet a stranger in Riyadh who knows the names of both Usyk and Fury.
So the typical charade of an open workout on Wednesday evening did not cause any stir in downtown Riyadh. Instead, the two heavyweights and their less celebrated counterparts on the undercard went through the ritual of prancing around the ring for a couple of rounds each, shadow boxing or tip-tapping the pads lightly to their ditty of choice. There was not much of a chance to work up a sweat for any of them as this was perfect football weather – with a genuine bite of cold in the tranquil air.
The setting was typically surreal. Boulevard World, on the outskirts of Riyadh, is an amusement park that carries echoes of Las Vegas. The fighters followed up their facade of a workout in a section of the park called, helpfully enough, Egypt. Fake pyramids, and a giant sphinx, add to the inauthenticity which stands in stark contrast to the sombre magnitude that awaits Fury and Usyk.
Fury now sports an almost biblical beard that suits his more concentrated approach to the rematch. He spent so much time before the first fight spouting stale old insults at Usyk it was almost as if he believed his own bluster that he would walk through the former undisputed cruiserweight champion. On rare occasions this week he has reverted to buffoonery and compared Usyk to a rabbit that he is about to cook in a pot. But this is just Fury hollering down boxing’s isolated echo chamber out of sheer force of habit.
He has mostly stuck to his revised script of stoical focus and sombre purpose. At the end of his little stint of exercise he avoided a formal interview and just repeated three words: “pain”, “hurt” and “damage”. The diluted atmosphere around the fight so far this week will make it easier for Fury to hunker down in these testing last few days. His problem remains that he has to face the one fighter he simply cannot intimidate or antagonise.
Usyk, as always, is a fascinating mix. Joking in the ring that he is an even better dancer than a fighter, he has the enduring bearing of a champion. A naturally warm and funny man, he has always lived the life of a fighter. There is a core of seriousness to him when he goes to work and a willingness to suffer and endure sacrifice. He pretends to hate the harsh solemnity of boxing but he understands the severity of its demands.
Fury is obviously also steeped in boxing. He has often said it’s all he really knows – a suggestion that belies his clear intelligence. Fury’s life has been more wayward but he is the only other contemporary heavyweight who matches Usyk in his towering aptitude for fighting.
Riyadh seems oblivious to the immense struggle that will soon be resumed by two complex and contradictory men. Surrounded by a mock pyramid trail and a pastiche of ancient Egyptian artefacts, the big men slipped away from one of the last chores of their fight week routine. They know they will be alone in the ring, facing each other once again, soon enough.
