Usyk fought Chisora too, but an older version after he'd been knocked out by Whyte. Both Usyk and Kabayel had almost equally close fights with Chisora.
There's no guarantee Usyk beats him. As we saw against Chisora, Briedis, AJ, Rico, and two-time drug cheat Tyson Fury - Usyk is a beatable fighter. Those guys just needed one or two more rounds to beat him on the scorecards, (minus that terrible ref stoppage against Rico). Sooner or later someone could get those extra rounds in the bag and outpoint him.
Kabayel has a good chance of knocking him out to the body too which is the main intrigue around this fight. Usyk is tough though, so another scenario is where Kabayel drops him with body shots and then outpoints him because of those knockdowns. On the flipside, Usyk could obviously beat Kabayel too by points or KO as Kabayel sometimes takes too many shots to land his own, particularly in his last fight. Excellent match up on paper.
Usyk either got old, complacent or just distracted by his daughter being moved to a bomb shelter earlier that evening. Any top 10 heavyweight beats him that night. Even novice Itauma would have beaten him.
Fury obviously isn't top 10 right now but guys like Tyson Fury, Chazz Witherspoon or Richard Torrez might have beat Usyk on that night.
He fought a huge awkward guy, who is not even a boxer, but he is a kickboxer. Usyk is 39 old, he clearly overlooked the guy, but at the end of the day he won by a stoppage.
Usyk will be in shape against Kabayel.
Usyk's hardest fight at cruiserweight was also against a former kickboxing champ with 70 kickboxing bouts. Mairis Briedis.
My point was not that his family was not in a shelter, but is surely well protected, because Usyk has the money to ensure it is, and in Ukraine, you buy anything literally - it is a place as corrupt.
But saying Рutin cares about Usyk and initiated the retaliation only to disturb him is laughable the least.
It's fairly obvious P.utin's retaliation was intentional, not coincidental. He knew Usyk was fighting in a unprecedented and historic card at the Egyptian pyramids. We're talking about one of the most internationally famous Ukrainian athletes of all time. If a hero falls, his people might follow. It's along the lines of military decapitation strategy / morale targeting / psychological warfare etc.
It is a pitiful excuse after being exposed for being chosen to win even when he loses. He was disturbed and had nothing meaningful to say, so he played the victim card. But a millionaire's family being threatened by a war in a country where money buys everything literally? How is it that nothing regarding this conflict didn't disturb him for the last couple of years, but only when we all saw the ugly reality?
I don't think he was lying about his daughter being transported to a bomb shelter shortly before the fight. At first I thought he was making up some bs excuse but now after checking the timing it actually fits. The bombing happened in Kiev where his family lives. If any boxer heard that his child had been transported to a bomb shelter shortly before they're about to fight, that'd be enough to throw anyone off their game if we're being fair. And probably intentional by P.utin, hoping it would cause Usyk to lose which would have demoralized many Ukrainian people. It almost worked.
I thought the same, bull**** excuse but who knows how he was feeling. He looked bone dry in the ring before the fight and didn’t look as focused as usual. I just thought he was taking the whole thing lightly but who knows. He still got battered and it’s no excuse why he looked so out of shape.
I thought the same thing, Usyk's facial expressions were looking way off before the fight. He didn't look focused, as if his mind was elsewhere. I thought he almost looked scared, but I guessed it was because he was wondering if he'd just cut too many corners in training and now realized he wasn't in great shape. There appeared to be more of a belly on him than there's ever been before. Turns out he might have been genuinely thinking about his daughter being transported to a bomb shelter at the time and maybe couldn't get fully into the fight mentally.
Let's be real. The Fury from the second Wilder fight would beat any version of Usyk. I know we can say Wilder isn't Usyk but I'm talking about Fury's skills and physical ability. That was the last time his legs worked and his punches were quick and sharp.
but credit to Usyk because he's older but lived the athlete life. Fury never, his legs are shot and he is half the fighter he was.
Usyk doesnt get near a prime Fury.
If the two-time drug cheat Tyson Fury fought Usyk the way he fought Wilder in the rematch, Fury gets knocked out in 6 or 7 rounds. Easy work for Usyk. Remember Wilder is an overrated heavyweight who was probably never even a Top 5 heavyweight of his era. It's just because Fury, when selling their fight, claimed that him and Wilder were 1 and 2 in the division - some of his fans fell for the bs. Fury might barely make Top 5 of the era.
Dubois admitted that he finds southpaws difficult to deal with. The style match up will always favor Usyk. Only when he slows down with age or injury would Dubois be able to beat him imo. But even slower southpaws, like Zhang or Otto Wallin, might be surprisingly difficult for Dubois to deal with.
While I wanted Fury to make a KO statement on his return to the ring, I do understand that he's been out for 16 months and may have wanted to get in some rounds. He looked like he could have dropped and stopped Makhmudov, but he chose not to. We'll see how his comeback progresses.
He tried to stop him but just couldn't do it. His face got bruised up and a black eye from the return fire so he ultimately was forced to settle for a cautious points win, unable to match the KO performances of Kabayel and Vianello.
You need an easy fight when you fight once a year? He just took a long rest if that's not enough then take 2 months more of rest instead of fighting Rico. I watch KB, MT, MMA and i'm in Boxing my whole life, i also trained and sparred in all of the above mentioned sports. All i want to say with this is i know combat sports and i know Rico. Rico has 0 chance and not 1 attribute that could give him a 1 percent chance. He is a Hw with 0 power who domintaed the weakest KB era in history and almost got finished by Badr.
This fight is a joke Chisora would dog walk Rico and Wilder would send him to the hospital. Matter of fact both would send him to the hospital. Why not fighting Shannon Briggs or Wladimir Klitschko? Both have more chances to win.
Yep, at Usyk's age 39 years old, having an easy fight now is an ideal move. It's a break between his next set of tough fights as he closes out his career over the next couple of years. Why take 2 months rest when offered an easy fight for a big purse by Turki? It's like throwing away free money for Usyk.
It's about time Usyk had an easy fight, he fought 7 dangerous fights back to back starting with Chisora 2020 (who only needed to win 1 more round on the scorecards to get an official draw).
AJ, Fury, Dubois, each twice. No problem with Usyk having one easy fight then back to real boxing business. Looking at it like a stay busy fight.
Fury is a two-time drug cheat. The only former heavyweight champ to be an official two-time drug cheat, to be precise. History in the making for sure. That's about the extent of his actual legacy. Beating an off-night Klitschko, then ducking the rematch. Then beating an overrated Wilder aren't exactly great achievements are they. Got beat by novice Ngannou making his pro debut, then Usyk twice.
Usyk wants to retire at 41. Next 2 years it'll be difficult for him to remain a respected champ without fighting Kabayel, Wardley and Itauma - assuming they keep on a winning trajectory and have this same hype around them. Usyk already proved he wasn't a coward - beat AJ, Fury and Dubois in a row. They're around the same level or better than Kabayel. But maybe his new found fame will change him, who knows.
Kabayel sounds a little undisciplined though, he mentioned he was eating burgers and chips during his last camp which is usually the type of "i can eat whatever I like" mentality that belongs to generally less successful heavyweights like Martin Bakole, Dave Allen, Bermane Stiverne and, at the moment seemingly Lawrence Okolie.
Suspect with the timing but likely just a coincidence and a genuine accident, perhaps with a speeding driver. Trucks parked on a driving road aren't uncommon. This video gives a good idea of driver's viewpoint. This one managed to avoid the parked truck but AJ's driver didn't.
https://x.com/Mrbankstips/status/2008078836982825437
Probably the juiced version of Fury was best around the Wladimir Klitschko win. He popped dirty for steroids only a few months before he fought Wladimir. Should have been auto-banned but somehow was allowed to go straight into a world title fight, months after failing a drug test for steroids. And then again got popped leading up to the rematch, for coke that time. That's why he pretended to retire with the whole "mental health" excuse so he avoided getting stripped of all his titles by manipulating the system.
Fury Juiced.0 takes the career crown.
Canelo is an ATG. You can match him with any other ATGs in the divisions he fought at and they're all competitive fights on paper where the winner isn't necessarily guaranteed. He had some controversial decisions with GGG and arguably Lara. But the Lara fight I thought Canelo won because Lara's activity dropped too much in the championship rounds so Canelo edged it by 2 rounds in a 115-113. The judge who gave Canelo 117-111 should have had his license revoked though.
AJ was having fun in there and taking his time. Jake Paul got a broken jaw and he was disorientated after the fight. He had to sit on the stool for 5 minutes after he got knocked out. Let's hope there's no complications later tonight at the hospital.
It's not impossible but I think Wilder would need a little luck to beat Usyk now. His skill level was never that impressive, and he looks past prime now. If Usyk gets a leg injury so he's just not as mobile as usual, then maybe Wilder can catch him. Usyk will be 39 next month so he's getting old too and his whole style depends heavily on his fast feet.
Oh man. On one hand, I understand the thinking. Wilder is the last of the big 3 (AJ / Fury / Wilder). Nobody else has any sort of a name right now. Itauma is a baby who hasn't fought a 12 rounder. Wardley looked surprised he won vs. Parker but is an unknown. Kabayel is an afterthought. I get it.
But man... Wilder has looked awful recently. They may be close in age (both 39 or 40 believe?), but Wilder is a bad cherrypick.
I don't blame Usyk for wanting what should be an easier fight than his last 6. Fought AJ twice, Fury twice, Dubois twice. That's a crazy 6 fights in a row. No shame in fighting a past prime Wilder at this stage imo, even if it turns out to just be a stay busy fight - Wilder is a hell of a name for that kind of fight. And you never know, Wilder has a puncher's chance so while the odds seem to be stacked prohibitively in Usyk's favor, crazy things can happen in boxing.
Khan had the best chance out of almost anybody in that era to beat Mayweather and Pacquiao, especially after Paul Williams had his accident. Mayweather openly ducked Khan, there's no argument, everyone knows the truth by now. But ultimately Pacquaio did too. A shame it happened that way because they would have been great fights regardless of the outcome.
Horn and Ocampo would ko Khan.
Khan would stop that version of Horn quicker than Crawford did. And Ocampo in about 3 rounds but Spence did get a low blow in which helped end the fight early. Without that it would have been a 5 round fight.
50-50 fight.. It depends on whether Khan stays disciplined or drawn into a slug fest when Crawford lands on him. Crawford doesn't really have great power at 147. I think Khan would have stopped that version of Horn more convincingly than Crawford did, in about 6 rounds, although he would have probably taken more punches in doing so. Khan's got the power and speed advantage over Crawford, whereas Crawford has the tactical, adaptability and boxing IQ edge. There's a possibility the fight could be so close that it could result in a draw or split decision either way.
Tomorrow this 20-year-old Kazakh makes his professional debut in Quebec (http://boxrec.com/en/event/765534). He came to my attention in the 2016 Youth World Championships where he won gold at Welterweight and was one of the stand-out boxers of the whole tournament. His style is fundamentally defined by power and aggression, but in the course of the tournament he showed us several different looks, sometimes brawling wildly, sometimes stalking patiently and sometimes throwing heavy counters off the back foot. I think this style, combined with his boyish appearance, will inevitably lead to comparisons with his countryman Golovkin once his pro career starts to pick up steam
There isn't too much footage of him on YouTube yet but here he is at his most aggressive against the athletic Mohammed Harris Akbar, a notable prospect in his own right:
Decent upcoming boxer but I thought Akbar undeniably outboxed him in that fight so was on the receiving end of a particularly bad decision. He easily landed more shots, displayed the better skill set overall and made Ahkmedov look quite one-dimensional, pedestrian and Margarito-like, plodding forward, swinging and missing repeatedly. He has improved since that fight but Akbar remains the superior boxer to this day. It'll be great to see a rematch once Akbar completes the 2020 Olympics and turns pro.
Floyd and Bradley ducking Khan were much bigger ducks in terms of how undeniable and public they were. To me it seems like Wilder and AJ are ducking each other, there are inconsistencies on both sides.
Golovkin is undoubtedly elite level but he met his match in Danny Jacobs so his skill-set has been shown to be beatable by another elite level boxer. Exciting fighter to watch and makes for some great entertainment. One of the best middleweights of this generation, matched by Jacobs and with question marks still lingering over Canelo and Saunders. Could be that those 4 fighters are around the same level and could potentially beat each other in very close fights and rematches.
Spence will be up at 160 around late 2020 and he'll face GGG in one of his final fights but by that time I suspect GGG might already have at least one L