All fair points. I don’t personally think he ever has been even a top 5 heavyweight but I’ve no problem with him been ranked there based on his activity if you get me
I just don't see why what Uysk has done at a different weight division has made him a number one contender so soon. Before title shots he should be proving himself and building himself up fighting guys like Povetkin, Ruiz, Parker and Dubois.
The WBO rules are that you automatically become mandatory when you move up, but since when have you had to build up to become number one contender in boxing lol? You could say becoming undisputed champion at Cruiswerweight IS building up but still. Champions ALWAYS move up to fight champions at a higher weight class, it's been this way since the beginning of boxing. Also boxing is a shady enough sport anyway, rankings are always dubious. What did any of Wilders opponents do for a title shot? As far as Usyk at heavyweight goes he has wins over Michael Hunter who's done pretty well at heavyweight, Gassiev who's moved up to heavyweight and now Dereck Chisora. In the WSB he has wins over Joe Joyce and Junior Fa, they ain't small guys at all. Now if someone says Usyk schools everybody at heavyweight no problem then yeah you could say he's overrated, but as for what he's done in boxing overall you could probably say he's underrated.
Why? He’s an Olympic gold medalist & unified champion who’s top 5 p4p. Get him straight in there. You don’t see Canelo, Lomachenko, Crawford, Inoue etc having to take warm up fights when they move up to a new weight class. If Joshua & Fury aren’t going to sort a fight out against each other then he’s the next best option.
If a team dominates the championship you wouldn't put them almost straight away in a premier league title decider. First they would prove they belong in with them over time. Obviously boxing is different.
His KO of Santa Cruz was frightening. There is only one fight out there that everyone wants to see next and that’s with Teofimo Lopez. Davis would make light work of Haney so he could go that way and collect another belt if he chose to. In terms of Usyk. He’s genuinely world class and his boxing IQ is right up there in my opinion. That being said the sheer size of AJ or Fury just poses such a riddle that he might struggle to solve it. Neither would simply Wade in like Chisora did. Of the other ‘top’ heavies, Povetkin is too slow, Ruiz too crude, Whyte has no engine and Wilder is one of the worst heavy weight champs in history. Even dropping down a tier to Dubious etc no one really knows how good those guys are yet because they are too busy bashing up cabbies and plumbers.
Terrifying power. Remember him coming over & making Liam Walsh look like an area level fighter. He didn’t know what had hit him
Tried to stay up for the fight but didn’t manage anything beyond the ring walk. Saw the KO and it will win KO of the year hands down. Destructive power and speed. However, we really need to see Tank not taking on smaller guys or guys not on his level. This was two weight classes above where Santa Cruz fought Frampton, and Gamboa keeps fighting at weights he doesn’t belong in (which is the other decent name on his record). I think Haney gives Tank so much to think about defensively that it doesn’t become as easy to get shots like last night off, and is a really competitive fight. Lopez will likely move up and fight the Taylor/Ramirez winner, but put him in with Loma, Haney, Tank and you’ve got so many fights at 135 that could go either way - especially if the Loma injury is genuine.
Completely disagree with you ruling out Haney and Ryan Garcia, and if he stays at 130 then you could add Shakur Stevenson also.
I’ll wait and see how Garcia performs against Luke a Campbell first. The kid hasn’t been in a fight yet and his social media popularity is way beyond the competition he’s faced. He’s got skills though but looks small in comparison to Lopez and Tank. Still think Loma’s best weight is 130 and 135 is a step too far for him.
Yes but he hasn't done anything much as a heavyweight yet to be thrown almost immediately into a title match.
Mayweather hadn’t done anything as a Light Middleweight when he fought Cotto. Calzaghe hadn’t done anything at Light Heavyweight when he moved up and fought Bernard Hopkins. Ricky Hatton hadn’t done anything at Welterweight when he moved up from Light Welter to fight Collazo. Boxing doesn’t work like that.
Had to come back to this thread after so many writing Usyk off on the first page lol. Also a ton of dumb comments on the other boxing threads. Anthony Joshua was a real, legit, fighting heavyweight champion of the world who has a ton of power & skill himself but Usyk just a level above. It happens. If you watched Usyk in the WSB against big heavyweights Joyce and Junior Fa this was always a very likely outcome. Beating champions in their backyards has been Usyks entire career.
I was massively wrong. I always rated his boxing ability, but didn't think he'd be able to take a crack off such as Joshua. And while I don't think AJ cracked him enough tonight, he was soundly beaten and Usyk put in an absolute masterclass. I can't credit him enough for tonight. I had him winning 8-4.