People overlook that Rico trained 6 months for usyk. Usyk going into fight cold, didn't know what rico does as a boxer. That's huge advantage for rico
People overlook that Rico has 0 amateur boxing fights and 1 four round pro fight 10 years ago, and has never fought a 12 round boxing match in his life. And is 37 years old and retired from a different sport. That’s a huge advantage for Usyk.
Ok by that logic Ali is a bum who lost to Leon Spinks a guy who was barely above an amateur with 7 fights. The difference between Ali and Usyk is that Uysk actually won his fight.
Usyk is easily top 10.
Leon Spinx was 24 yr old decorated Olympic Gold Medalist in boxing.
Rico was a 37 yr old retired kickboxer who had only competed in one 4r boxing match his entire life.
Muhammad Ali's resume makes Usyk's look like a joke.
Legendary wins vs a prime Foremon, Frazier, Liston...
He is universally recognized as the greatest boxer of all time.
Usyk doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath.
His greatest win is a split dec vs Tyson Fury. Don't make me laugh.
Anyways, I've realized you're in love with Usyk and there's nothing anyone can do to convince you otherwise.
The result of the fight is one thing.
But the bigger issue of what happend is that --- one of the so called best fighters of our era, Usyk STRUGGLED vs a 37 yr old kickboxer with1 pro fight.
That performance showed the world
that a non professional kickboxer can do that to a top boxer.
that in reality Usyk is not the top P4P boxer in the world.
And it showed that Usyk is no where near the top 10 best boxers of all time.
It also showed me that there are a lot of Usyk supporters in the west, that get extremely offended by this.
Whether it was 8-2 or 6-4, That was flat out a disgraceful performance by Usyk.
Off night or not, no real P4P top BOXER would ever allow that to happen.
There is no excuse.
The media tends to hype you when you know you clear out the best in the cruiserweight division, become undisputed, and then go on to do the exact same thing in the heavyweight division against the best the division has to offer and remain undefeated. The last undisputed heavyweight champ was Lewis in 1999, thats not exactly an easy feat to achieve. It is though the exact kind of feat that precisely puts you on Mt. Rushmore for heavyweights. Especially when the previous undisputed champs of the last 40+ years could just about be counted on one hand. He is in the company of Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Muhamad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier and Sonny Liston no matter what happens from here on.
Judging Usyks whole career off of one fight that he actually ended up winning at 39 years of age, basically the twilight of his career is bonkers.
No, I think it's completely fair to judge a fighter by ONE terrible performance.
One fight can define your career. That's how the boxing game works.
I imagine you're well versed enough to know how many times that's rang true in the history of the sport.
Let me put it into perspective.
Usyk accepted a fight with a 37 yr old kickboxer with 1 pro fight.
Everyone thought he would wash Rico. As he should, being the so called "P4P #1 or #2 boxer on the planet".
But Rico outboxed him for 7-9 rounds. That is insane.
That will put a STAIN on anyone's legacy FOREVER.
It doesn't dismiss all of his prior achievements.
But to say he was the best HW of all time is completely bogus.
There isn't a single person who believes that now.
He's maybe Top 15 of all time.
He's been training in boxing gyms and sparring elite level HW boxers for over 10 years.
so do most top level kickboxers and MMA fighters - part time.
your point?
an elite boxing champion should never struggle that badly vs any kickboxer (who trains part time in a pro boxing gym)
No one knows what would've happened if the ref made the right call, and Rico fought on to the 12th.
It's ridiculous when ppl say "he would've been knocked out".
Rico may have gone to dec, where everyone would expect him to win on pts
Imagine if it went to dec & they read off those corrupt scorecards?
Boxing would turn into a joke over night
I find it highly unrealistic that Usyk took this fight lightly.
It’s one of the biggest events of his career.
He always has the discipline, and trains properly for every fight. Adding wgt was prob also part of his strategy.
He just couldn’t figure out Rico. He struggled finding the right distance. He ate a big right in the 2nd round, which made him more cautious. He also looked confused on the inside. Rico to his credit was better than we thought. But he had a pretty basic approach. It wasn’t like he was physically overpowering or exceptionally quick and athletic.
Usyk couldn’t adjust and adapt vs a 1-0 guy. You can’t consider anyone with those kinds of issues as the king of boxing. I think his stock goes way down.
I like Usyk, but heavyweight boxing is nowhere as good as it used to be. The idea that any of these guys (Fury, AJ, Usyk) could compete in any era is just nonsense. The best of this era doesn't equal ATG status. I think Usyk's legacy took a hit.
This will be the moral of the story.
Now observe how Usyk’s P4P and ATG perception will change after this.
Go watch it back and remember its clean scoring punches
Rico won rounds 6,8 and 9
Usyk won the rest
A lot of Ricos punches were blocked and nullified
He only landed one successful combination and it was in one of those rounds i mentioned
Usyk outworked Rico for a majority of the fight with clean punches
Rico landed some clean punches in the rounds ive stated he lost but Usyk did much more
You’re obviously one of those delusional Euro-idiots
You're basing Usyks whole career of being Olympic champ, undisputed cruiser weight champ, and undisputed heavyweight champ against top opposition on one fight at the very tail end of Usyks career a fight that he won by KO nonetheless.
So he got exposed what? Being old, overweight, and complacent? Not sure what was exposed.
Usyk is exposed for being OVER-HYPED by the media for many years for being one of the greatest fighter on the planet, and the all time greatest HW.
IMO he is a great amateur, a very good pro, but was never a P4P king or no where near the Mt Rushmore of heavyweights.
He's nearly 40 and clearly didn't take it seriously for whatever reason (which is definitely his fault). And he did win the fight.
We rightly excuse Ali's losses after about 35. I think Usyk gets some leeway at nearly 40.
Recently 1 fight ago, after Dubois, he was hailed as the ATG heavyweight, and the supposed P4P King.
And all of a sudden, he's over the hill and doesn't take fights seriously.
Stop with the lame excuses. He got exposed.
Usyk is perhaps the most overrated fighter of our era.
After the Dubois win, many said he better than Ali and the other greats.
But I'm glad Rico exposed him.
Usyk was a good HW champ during a weak era of that division, but he was far from being one of the ATGs.
I don't even know why he was so high on the P4P list. He literally fought once a year. I wonder where the writers will put him now.
Rico is certainly NOT an elite boxer.
At 37, he's also not young, he's slow, has lots of wear & tear, and has no experience in a boxing ring.
Yet he outboxed Usyk for 9 rounds. (before the bogus stoppage)
So this where does that put Usyk?
It's one thing if you get caught by a lucky haymaker.
but completely outboxed?
Overrated is the best description I can find. Usyk is overrated.
I don’t believe Usyk got old and unskillful overnight
What happened was that we realized he wasnt as great as some ppl imagined him to be. The fact is this heavyweight division is or has been one of the weakest. Ngannou began to expose Fury, now this.
Usyk maybe the best HW of this weaker era, But what people now realize is that he is far from the best of all time.
Rico exposed the quality of the heavyweight division by getting knocked out by an old overweight champ? This is exactly what I mean about over hyping Rico, I have no doubt he will go the way of Nganou if he’s in there with another top boxer.
What fight were you watching?
Rico outboxed Usyk for 10 rounds... LOL
I think this fight is way beyond "styles makes fights"
It was more like P4P #2 vs novice boxer/retired kickboxer
Usyk was getting outboxed by a kickboxer.
I don't think it was just age.
Rico exposed the quality of the entire division.
Ngannou went to split dec in his first pro fight vs Fury. Similar story.
The HW div was always overhyped by the media, especially RING and cheerleaders like Kellerman.
The truth is Usyk was not as great as most people thought.
As low as 5 as high as 3
3 would be waay too generous
Usyk just cherry picked a 37 yr old retired kickboxer... and got outboxed!
It's probably one of the biggest busts in boxing history.
Usyk's built his reputation on beating a bunch of average Euro fighters in the heavyweight division.
Tyson Fury is his best win....
Who is also one of the most overrated fighters today. I bet Rico also beats Fury. As did Ngannou.
This is the lowest level title fight in the HISTORY of boxing.
It's also sad how this is being over promoted like boxing fans are anticipating the "fight of the century"
I haven't read anything online by fans, media, pros - to suggest that anyone is looking forward to this.....
It seems like Turki and Usyk are the only ones hyped about this.
At the end of the day, I wouldn't be suprised if this is the biggest DUD in boxing history.
Turki may lose a lot of money.