Usyk gets WAY too much praise for beating Average AJ and Finished Fury

[Dr Z]

Let's be real here, people are putting this guy up there with the ATG's for beating a bunch of bummingtons at cruiserweight and two VERY average heavyweights.

Joshua was FINISHED as a world class heavyweight by Ruiz Jr, after that he done NOTHING until getting 8-4 x2 by Usyk before getting absoloutley battered by Dubois.

As far as Fury, he was physically finished by the third wilder fight and was so badly diminished he LITERALLY needed a robbery to sc**** a decision vs a UFC fighter.

There's not a single historically significant win on Usyks resume, he's a good skilled fighter but nowhere near proven enough to be considered an ATG based on wins over middling opposition.

At his age when Usyk beat them in thier primes it should be considered a great victory. They were his #1 and #2 best opponets in terms of their resume with multiple title defenses.

[NihonJim]

At his age when Usyk beat them in thier primes it should be considered a great victory. They were his #1 and #2 best opponets in terms of their resume with multiple title defenses.

They weren't in their primes.

You just want to ignore form?

[Dr Z]

They weren't in their primes.

You just want to ignore form?

AJ was 32 when they first fought.

[Citizen Koba]

No the two don't correlate.

He's winning on points 116-112 vs opponents in the worst era ever, not good enough to be a top fighter in good eras.

On what objective grounds have we determined it's the worst heavyweight divison ever? When you fire up the time machine and begin to match fighters from different eras then we can have the conversation, until you get the DeLorean going though we can only meaningfully discuss how fighters have done in the context of their current era and relative to the contempraneous competiton.

Far as I can see the only serious argument you can have against Usyks inclusion in the rankings of Great Heavyweights is that he simply hasn't had many fights in the divison but then if quantity was the deciding metric no fighter will ever again reach the heights of historical eras when records in the hundreds of fights were commonplace.

Let's look at it this way, which heavyweights in the last 25 years would you rank above him? The history of modern boxing is approximately 100 years (from the establishment of the NBA and NYSAC), which you could - very loosely - divide into 4 eras. If you were to pick a top 20 you would expect roughly 5 fighters from each 25 year period unless you can make a convincing argument that fighters have objectively got worse over time and would not be competitive with their peers from yesteryear should they share a ring.

[SouthpawRight]

Ali
Joe Louis
Rocky
Lennox
George
Joe Frazier
Larry
Jack
Sonny Liston
Mike Tyson

[JOITATS]

I think it's pretty universal that AJ is grossly overrated.
Overall, Usyk beat 2 of the most popular heavyweights of our era. But hardly the most skilled opponents.


IMO Usyk gets too much props for going to split dec vs both.
For that, I don't think he should be ranked so high.

[NihonJim]

I think it's pretty universal that AJ is grossly overrated.
Overall, Usyk beat 2 of the most popular heavyweights of our era. But hardly the most skilled opponents.


IMO Usyk gets too much props for going to split dec vs both.
For that, I don't think he should be ranked so high.

100%

AJ is fish food for any atg heavyweight, 8-4 vs him isn't all that impressive

[ELPacman]

No way you can hate on Usyk. The dude went up from cleaning our cruiserweight division to heavyweight and becoming undisputed. You can't deny his skillset no matter what era he would have fought in. His southpaw edge coupled with excellent footwork would give any heavyweight problems from any era.

I don't care if this era is better or worse than any other era. The fact is he still did it. It's not his fault for the era he's born in. All you can do then is imagine how he would have fared in another era and for that matter, why does it mean another heavyweight would have done any better against Usyk? It's all just fantasy talk at this point. Give the man some credit.

[crimsonfalcon07]

Holy hater alert. He won against top competition, at heavyweight against MUCH bigger guys, and he won the majority of his big fights on the road in enemy territory with hostile crowds and judges and haters like you, which meant to get the points wins he did, he actually had to win more rounds than he got credit for. If you can't acknowledge the man, that's just an indictment of you and proof that YDKSAB.

[Willow The Wisp]

I think it's pretty universal that AJ is grossly overrated. Overall, Usyk beat 2 of the most popular heavyweights of our era. But hardly the most skilled opponents.


IMO Usyk gets too much props for going to split dec vs both.
For that, I don't think he should be ranked so high.

It's merely a semantics thing, but a fun one.
If it were "pretty universal that AJ is grossly overrated"; beyond that universal grouping, who is left to do all that erroneous over-rating of him? Seems, literally, that if he were indeed overrated by those outside of universal concensus, he'd be rated precisely where he should be, and any over-raters would statistically be outliers, outside of the universal.

What?

On a more sober note; the 2015 - 2025 era has been one of the best. While the 1970's remains the consensus high water mark, going farther back prior to it, the players become a bit smallish. Important, depending on whether your judgement criteria contains a P4P component.
And since the 70s?

The era dominated by the Klitschko brothers was considerably worse than the current one. In fact, it isn't even close.

Feel lucky that you're not limited to following Mixed Martial Arts or Kickboxing, waiting around for new and talented heavyweights to churn out.