Eh, gross overreaction IMO. Usyk showed up out of shape and Rico was very good, especially against a smaller boxer like Usyk. Those bullrushes and leantos were draining the smaller guy. I think Rico would do really well against HW boxers and struggle mightily against power punchers like Dubois or AJ.
if Usyk takes another serious fight, I'd expect him to show up in significantly better shape than this. Dude was career heaviest and looked flabby.
I'm a HUGE Usyk fan. But that stoppage was TRASH. The bell rang and Rico was on his feet. That's a terrible stoppage, if he wanted to, he should have let Rico's team stop the fight on the stool.
Terrible, terrible, terrible.
They just said WBC is doing open scoring right now. It's 76-76 through the 8th... I do think Usyk won 2 rounds, but he didn't win 4. Rico should be clearly ahead.
Gonna be curious about the scorecards. British commentary is 100% Nakatani.. while showing Inoue blocking majority of the shots and landing clean. Nakatani had few nice rounds (8 / 9), but he wasn't dominant by any means. Either I don't know shit about boxing, or this is gonna be a wide Inoue UD
Wtf you're talking about? Usyk is turning 40 in less than a year, and his last 6 fights have been against the absolute best HW contenders available. He could have literally said he's 40 years old and wanted to dance ballet for his last fight, he still wouldn't be ducking nobody.
This headline is such bait. He's actually being very respectful of Usyk, while headline makes him sound like a douche.
Plenty of great fights out there for Itauma to build himself up. Dubois - clear way to cement his status as top contender. Joshua - past vs. the future match similar to Wlad/AJ. Wardley/Kabayel - leapfrogs them to the top.
Yeah. don't think anyone will ever be able to accuse Usyk of picking on declining fighters. He's older than all the elites he's faced, and with significantly more mileage through the amateurs.
He wants Wilder because Wilder still has a name.
If AJ can't just walk forward and KO Paul in 2 rounds he got paid off. It's not a question of skills, or if AJ is a bum, or anything else. This fight is a joke.
It's a solid list. No issues with most of it.
I would be curious to know what they valued more for this ranking. For example, I love Crawford and think he's downright amazing. But his resume is pretty thin - he has Spence and Canelo. If he doesn't take the Canelo fight and win, he doesn't come close to sniffing this list. Is 1 fight enough to propel you into Top10 of last 25 years?
Hopkins - amazing fighter, amazing longevity. He was top 1/2 in P4P for a couple of years.. but he has quite a few losses.
Inoue - still writing his story, but he lacks a marquee win. Largely it's not his fault - you can't beat someone who doesn't exist. On the other hand, he could have tried to get top big names into the ring at times.
Ward - short career and questionable/dirty fights. Busted Kovalev's balls when he didn't need to. Between that and Kessler headbutts, just can't take him seriously.
Canelo - I'm not a fan recently, and he did cherry pick a lot of his opponents.. but he should be higher on this list. He got a gift or two, but he had a dominant run.
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.
Why anyone would pick up Haney for their card I'll never understand. Landed a lucky shot and acted like he's a god of boxing... then ran and hugged for next 10 rounds.
Too many. Definitely Canelo-Crawford. Still shocked how bad Canelo looked against an older, smaller fighter. Munguia Surace.. dude was a 20-1 favorite coming off a Canelo fight, then got starched out. Ruiz - Joshua was wild.. last minute replacement came in looking like a muffin, got beat pillar to post for 2 rounds, then knocked AJ out.. completely changing the course of his career.
I was replying to the 15 million flat fee to the 25 million K2/360 gang took.
1.45 mil x 80 (assuming all purchases were HD) = 116 million
Network / PPV take 45% ( 52.5 million)
40% to K2 360 = 25.4 million
60% to GBP Alvarez = 38.1 million
So 15 million flat fee to an extra 10 million was better off of course. After murkier USA based tax the whole K2 gang gets 12 million. Not bad for everyone for pandering Mexicanism
Mostly likely it’s the same splits again. K2 and gang were very lucky to get that split. Basically they’ll do anything to work with GbP again Again, you're missing the point. If he took flat fee he would still have to pay his team. The only number you're comparing is 25 vs. 15.
You can rag on him all you want, but prime RJJ was as unbeatable a fighter as I've ever seen. Are there fighters who rank ahead of him all-time P4P? Lots. Would I take any of them over Roy in a head to head fight? Nope.
TBH I wouldn't be surprised if over time, they were all shown to be on similar level, good contender but not quite elite. Callum Smith looks skilled, but he can be crowded and has limited power at the weight. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if he gets beaten soon. Someone who makes a point to pound the body and get inside will cause Callum fits.
Time will tell.
I have no idea what point you're trying to make here. In 1986, Tyson was a 20 year old who was boxing professionally for 2 years. You're comparing Apples and Cell phones.
As for the head to head, Wilder's jab is too inconsistent to dominate Tyson like Lewis did, and Wilder's defense is average at best. Those long arms aren't gonna help Wilder at all.
If my life was on the line, I would go with Mike Tyson KO in 2nd round and not look back.
Think you guys are gonna be quite surprised at this fight. I think you've built up Wilder to be a garbage fighter and a total bum beater, and he will show himself to be much more than that.
We all knew he had a good chin, however that was just one shot. If you think back to Dorticos-Gassiev fight, Dorticos took several clean, hard shots. It took until the ~10th for his chin to start showing cracks, and many more until he finally cracked. If Canelo takes a few of those, then yeah, that's a great chin.
Also keep in mind that while Golovkin has been described as heavy handed and having tremendous power, opponents describe his power as thudding, very much unlikely KO artists such as Julian Jackson. Golovkin has heavy hands, you feel every punch, but it is the accumulation and the accuracy that is terrifying, rarely a 1 shot KO.
Canelo was able to neutralize Golovkin's accuracy, and thus came out of the fight looking good. Let's see which fighters makes the best adjustments for the rematch. If Canelo can find a way to setup and sit on more punches, he can easily hurt Golovkin. If Golovkin can find a way to slow down the fight and connect with more punches, Canelo is going to be in deep trouble.