Member-only story

A Ghetto Nerd’s Notebook: Usyk Joshua II Post-fight

Robert Lashley
3 min readAug 22, 2022

( Photo by Francois Melecketchy)

You cannot make your status in your art or trade your god. Your art can mean so much. Your art can be your central passion. But dear sweet black baby Jesus, it cannot make you whole.

Anthony Joshua was a troubled Brixton kid who made his trade, boxing, his whole life, and it made him a lot of money. But some fighters get old quick. And some fighters just don’t have the intangibles to be the immortal they desperately want to be. Some of his flaws as a fighter were intertwined: He fought for the title too fast because his management was concerned with his chin. But who the fuck was the Einstein on his team who thought, “We shouldn’t send him to the states and teach him lateral movement. He should fight straight up like too many British also ran heavyweights to count?”

And yet his tremendous will, plus his skills ( jab, tremendous power), made him a good fighter who got into entertaining fights. He had a good run as heavyweight champ. He had a solid set of defensive skills that protected his fragile chin. There is no shame in being a good fighter with a fragile chin( and an inability to get out of the way of a good lead). They aren’t a recipe for having a long career, but I’m grateful he gave what he gave in that ring. (Being an ex-pug who couldn’t get out of the way of a lead, I can sympathize.)

Shame is a meal of 4 Loko, Gutbombs, and Skittles spiked with Molly. The origin story in his ring meltdown( of a troubled ex-Brixton kid who doesn’t know what to do now that he’s lost the title twice) is one of the sad realities of boxing, and I don’t have the damn taste to scorn him for it. A lot of ghetto kids think boxing can fix their life forever, then become desolate when physiology dictates that it won’t. And good lord, Alexandr Usyk would be a tough style fight for anybody. A formidable fighter with impenetrable defense, and a sharp lead right, he’s a sober version of Jimmy Young, who gave Ali, Foreman, and Norton hell before cocaine gave him hell.

I know Joshua’s got 80 million and doesn’t need my sympathy. I wish he were a little more gracious toward Uzyk. I’m still not joining the fucking internet dogpile because he was a public figure who emoted weird. I’m sure that someone else who is public will emote weird in two weeks, and Twitter keys will go after them to make their lives whole. Most of them won’t have his money or the goodwill he has in the bank with people who don’t think Twitter is their god. At least Joshua had a skill and a passion to put his life into. All twitter thugs need is a computer screen.

Create an account to read the full story.

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Robert Lashley
Robert Lashley

Written by Robert Lashley

Writer. Author. Former Jack Straw and Artist Trust Fellow. The baddest ghetto nerd on the planet.

No responses yet

Write a response