Comments Thread For: Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk - Hardcore Fans' Delight

[Oldskoolg]

So much excitement about Canelo and plant I had forgotten about this fight. Oh well….toss up. Can’t call a winner. I’ll be happy with either man winning

[RJJ-94-02=GOAT]

What’s the point here? Is the writer trying to compare Usyk to Ali? Or draw parallels between Ali-Liston and AJ-Usyk? I don’t really get the comparison.

[billeau2]

The writer makes a good point that this something that Usyk has been plotting towards for his whole career. He's not in the heavyweight division by accident, or because he ran out of challenges, the plan was always to move up to heavyweight. It's been talked about for years.

I don't buy that he's not a real heavyweight. We've got some tall timber in the division right now, but 6ft 3in would be closer to the average Heavyweight than to the average Cruiserweight. He wouldn't look small next to Parker or Whyte. And, again, he's always planned to fight in the division. This is where he believes he belongs. If he comes in at 220 pounds it's because that's where he wants to be.

And he's got real quality.

I see it as a great fight. Though probably not an exciting fight. Joshua's skills and speed are underrated. I think the Ruiz loss taught him a lot and he's fighting with more control/IQ than before.

I reckon Joshua wins in 8 but only because I think he's the best out there. It's a real fight.

The Boni fide for a heavyweight is a real loaded proposition lol. There are "natural" heavyweights, Blown up middle weights and everything in between. A real heavyweight? I just look at it like this: Usyk has a small frame, look at his legs for example, like Wilders, they are relatively thin. So when uysk increases in weight, he's adding muscle to a smaller frame. How much does that matter? I think it depends, if someone can carry the weight, its not much of a problem. Toney had no problems carrying heft up from middle weight.

[RoadOfTheGypsy]

This fight could go either way. I believe AJ is the favorite here, more seasoned at HW, naturally bigger and stronger guy. Usyk's strength lies in his technical skill and speed. One thing that makes the fight a bit less interesting is what Teddy Atlas pointed out recently, will Usyk get a fairshake in the UK?

[Joeboxeo]

And the new

[TinAgeOfBoxing]

Fighting AJ in UK is guaranteed to be crooked. Usyk will be fighting the ref and the judges and AJ. Usyk has proven jack s*** at HW he did not earn it he was literally gifted a HW mando spot without fighting 1 second at heavy. Hard to care about this fight. I would not think there is any heat for this fight outside UK and Ukraine.

[Toffee]

Fighting AJ in UK is guaranteed to be crooked. Usyk will be fighting the ref and the judges and AJ. Usyk has proven jack s*** at HW he did not earn it he was literally gifted a HW mando spot without fighting 1 second at heavy. Hard to care about this fight. I would not think there is any heat for this fight outside UK and Ukraine.

'Gifted it' by being a brilliant Cruiserweight champion.

As opposed to the guys who 'earned' a heavyweight mandatory... Breazeale and Pulev. You'd rather Usyk wouldn't you?

As for 'Heat' - that's for casual fans. Boxing fans can judge the standard of the fight without needing two megastar names or press conference fake fights to provide 'heat'.

[Frankie Coffeecake]

Usyk can definitely stop AJ. He can run him onto shots and push hard to drown him if AJ fatigues. He may not be a natural heavyweight but he’s still a big ol’ boi, and he’ll be able to do damage if the opportunity presents himself.

AJ isn’t a defensive wizard, he’s got a relatively good beard but when he’s hurt his senses pretty much abandon him. If you can avoid the clinch then you can tee off. I think that’s what really causes issues for him, if he was naturally better at riding the storm like Fury then he’d be a tough man to beat.

Only thing I'd add to this is we haven't really seen Joshua do that weird gassing out thing when hit at South of 240.

His reaction to shots seemed to get worse the further he went past the mid 240s, at 250+ it was atrocious so while I don't think he's ever going to have fantastic punch resistance it might help him to be a bit trimmer and have less muscle to pump blood to in those moments he ran out of steam weighing 254lbs.

[harry-greb]

Joshua on points.

[Albanianboxing]

I love Joshua vs Usyk!!!! I think this fight really lives up to the hype!