That was then and this is now but I remember watching a couple of their amateur meetings and seeing Usyk take a knee twice. The commentary was in a foreign language but my understanding was that the kidney punches that dropped him were considered illegal.
In the pros I don’t think there would have been any problem. My thinking at the time was that if those punches had been legal, the knockdowns would have counted and the winner would likely have been Beterbiev not Usyk.
I think they went 2-1.
Yeah it was 2-1. All close fights, about 5 points maximum in each. I haven’t seen their first fight, was around 2006/07 at a Ukraine vs Russia Duel. I’ve seen both the later fights though, Usyk deserved the nod in both.
Nah Usyk beats him relatively easily IMO. Beterbiev beat Usyk when Usyk was 20 years old, he was inexperienced at elite amateur level, it’s around the same time Korobov, Porter etc beat him. They fought again in 2011 at the worlds and then 2012 at the Olympics and Usyk won both. At that point Usyk had matured and nobody could touch him in the amateur ranks at 91 kg.