Comments Thread For: Promoter: If Ali Can Beat The Best at That Size - So Can Usyk!

[NEETzschean]

Ali was comparable to every other heavyweight in his division and era....6.3 and 220lb....foreman weighed a tad more ,
Frazier was smaller , Liston was shorter , Norton , bonavena , Terrell was similar in size and weight and unlike usyk Ali grew in weight as he got older and was a heavyweight from day 1....usyk has bitten off much more than he thinks and I can see Joshua being really vicious and nasty in there and usyk will take a beating....Joshua is calmly waiting

Ali had a size (height, weight, reach) advantage over the great majority of his opponents yes but he was not always a heavyweight by modern standards. He made his debut at what would now be called cruiserweight and was a light heavy in the amateurs. Unlike Ali, Usyk has fought and sparred modern super-heavies on many occasions and has always been successful thus far. This is probably going to be a very competitive fight.

[NEETzschean]

Somewhat sadistic of you. That is a straight beat down of Usyk. I sort of look at Usyk as a Chris Byrd kind of HW, but I don't think he'll even have that much success at HW - unless the division titles get split up again and he gets title shots against 2nd-tier HWs.

Fellow southpaw Byrd was much smaller than Usyk and didn't defend his title against quality opposition. Usyk was a far better amateur and undisputed cruiser champ, so he's surely better than Byrd. But he'll have to be a lot better than Byrd to beat AJ while away from home.

[kiDynamite92]

Boxing was a different sport back then. 15 rounds would generally make heavyweights smaller and the size of the gloves impacted the style of boxing. On top of that Ali had a much bigger frame. At the 210lbs Ali looks skinny whilst Usyk looks totally filled out.

[Murray Kelm]

Ali was very strong, he never really got out muscled. Angelo Dundee said Ali was the physically strongest fighter he trained

[Murray Kelm]

Holyfield was great because he had about 25 pounds of steroid enhanced muscle added to his frame.

[OldTerry]

I would say that in general, height and in shape weight count a lot in boxing, including at the heavyweight level. Still, they are not everything. A review of boxing history proves that. The question is how would Fury, Joshua and Wilder have fared against past greats like Ali, Holmes, Joe Louis and even Jack Dempsey. I would pick any of the past champions as winners.

[NachoMan]

I would say that in general, height and in shape weight count a lot in boxing, including at the heavyweight level. Still, they are not everything. A review of boxing history proves that. The question is how would Fury, Joshua and Wilder have fared against past greats like Ali, Holmes, Joe Louis and even Jack Dempsey. I would pick any of the past champions as winners.

and that's why they call you Old Terry.

[The plunger man]

Ali had a size (height, weight, reach) advantage over the great majority of his opponents yes but he was not always a heavyweight by modern standards. He made his debut at what would now be called cruiserweight and was a light heavy in the amateurs. Unlike Ali, Usyk has fought and sparred modern super-heavies on many occasions and has always been successful thus far. This is probably going to be a very competitive fight.

when Ali was a heavyweight he was comparable to the other fighters in his division .....usyk manager is trying to compare his fighter to what Ali did but that’s wrong he has not e
ven faced a dangerous top 10 heavyweight yet.....I never said today’s heavyweights we’re not super heavyweight I said about Ali era....as for usyk he has not shown himself to be accustomed to the heavyweight division , we all know chisora is just a gate keeper now in the lower half of top 20 rankings......yeah he has the skill to give AJ problems for sure he has pedigree but on the other hand if Joshua lands on usyk I don’t see it turning out to well for usyk........if chisora and Witherspoon can make it hard for usyk then Joshua will be a night mare for him

[Cypocryphy]

I think this is a bigger fight for Joshua than Usyck. Iss gonna be a stepping stone fight for Fury. Joshua outboxed ruiz but ruiz aint a boxer per se. Usyck will be a lot closer to Fury in a sense that theyll work their angles and work behind the jab. If joshua can outbox usyck i think he'll be perfect for Fury, more power and issa good boxer himself.

It goes without saying that if Joshua can't get past Usyk, then there's no way in hell he's getting past Fury, so technically we wouldn't even need to see that fight in the future.

[nino brown21]

Ernie Terrell was a 6'6 beanpole, 30 lbs lighter than AJ and made his debut at the same weight as many modern rehydrated light heavies. None of these guys were close to AJ's class either; look at how many losses they had, who they lost to and who they beat.

Both Krassyuk and nostalgic boxing fans are wrong: Ali was a huge heavyweight back in his day in terms of overall height, reach and weight, Usyk is small despite being slightly bigger than Ali because heavyweights as a whole have got so much bigger. However, Ali is nowhere near as good as so many boxing fans like to think because sports improve over time and boxing in no exception. Even in his day he had a lot of help from the officials and could have easily had 10 career losses rather than 5.

AJ has to be the favourite because he has the size, power, youth and home advantages but Usyk has pretty much everything else. It's an intriguing fight to be sure, especially as AJ has shown so many vulnerabilities.

Ya but Ali had something way more than 90% of boxers have today and that's heart . to fight the best of the best in their prime is something most of these boxers are not wiling to do .