Comments Thread For: We know Oleksandr Usyk feels, but is he actually human?

[BoxingUpdates]

Oleksandr Usyk continues to make boxing look not only easy but something his heavyweight peers are still learning to do, writes Elliot Worsell.
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[JakeTheBoxer]

He is a great boxer in a bad era.

It is not his fault, he can only fight guys that live in his era.

He would be legit in any era.

[Roberto Vasquez]

He is a great boxer in a bad era.

It is not his fault, he can only fight guys that live in his era.

He would be legit in any era.

They say that every era. People were saying when Klictchkos were around too. My father said it when Tyson was the guy, compared to his era


I think Uysk is great - its very hard to come up from CW and be successful at HW and he actually won undisputed twice now

BUT boxers like Fury, AJ, Dubois play to his strengths. All "boxers" (not brawlers) with average to poor chin.

How does he fair against someone who brawls and has great chin and hard punch? I think he struggles more. He always says Chisora his hardest opponent. I think HW boxing can do better than Chisora..

[JakeTheBoxer]

They say that every era. People were saying when Klictchkos were around too. My father said it when Tyson was the guy, compared to his era


I think Uysk is great - its very hard to come up from CW and be successful at HW and he actually won undisputed twice now

BUT boxers like Fury, AJ, Dubois play to his strengths. All "boxers" (not brawlers) with average to poor chin.

How does he fair against someone who brawls and has great chin and hard punch? I think he struggles more. He always says Chisora his hardest opponent. I think HW boxing can do better than Chisora..

Well,guys like Lennox, Vitali, Mercer, Holy, Mike, Ali, Holmes, Foreman, even somebody like Tua....would all challenge Usyk much better than Fury, Joshua and Dubois.

In some better era, he would be just challenged better. Lose some, win some, just as many other greats.

[PBR Streetgang]

They say that every era. People were saying when Klictchkos were around too. My father said it when Tyson was the guy, compared to his era


I think Uysk is great - its very hard to come up from CW and be successful at HW and he actually won undisputed twice now

BUT boxers like Fury, AJ, Dubois play to his strengths. All "boxers" (not brawlers) with average to poor chin.

How does he fair against someone who brawls and has great chin and hard punch? I think he struggles more. He always says Chisora his hardest opponent. I think HW boxing can do better than Chisora..

Styles make fights. Don't forget that Kabayel barely eked out a majority decision against Chisora in what was probably his toughest fight to date. Chisora has his limitations but he's relentless and hits very hard.

[landotter]

He is a great boxer in a bad era.

It is not his fault, he can only fight guys that live in his era.

He would be legit in any era.

Well, I think we may need to have some distance to truly evaluate this era as it is tough during it to be objective, but:

I think this era is better than the Wladimir Klitschko era by far.

I think it is better than the era that Mike Tyson had to start his career, although Tyson was still relevant during the Holyfield/Lewis/Bowe/Tua era, which was way stronger than this. But his early, dominant run was against very B-level competition at best.

I think this era is better than the one Larry Holmes had in his prime. Holmes saw the end of one great era, and saw the start of another at the very tail end of his career, but when he owned HW boxing, there was some decent names (Tommy Morrison and the such) but no great ones.

But Holmes is considered a top 10 all time HW, Tyson is considered top 10- top 15 depending on the historian, and Klitschko is in the top 30 conversations. And the CW division he unified was one of the deepest in the history of that division's existence. So where Usyk will settle historically is very much up for debate, but he will be debated among the top HW of all time and is no less than #1 or #2 CW of all time. That is one great resume in any era. .

[Theshotyoudontsee]

Usyk is not the strongest HW champ, hardest hitting HW champ or most exciting HW champ. But he very well may be the most technically sound HW champ and the smartest HW champ all time. He wins with his mind and has an incredible ring IQ. He used Dubois's aggression against him.

It's why him and Fury are so boring. Both guys hage extremely high ring IQ and they win mentally. Usyk a tad better than Fury and Fury is bigger and so they basically cancel each other out.

If they do a third I see another Usyk close decision. Fury can't read what Usyk is going to do like he can other fighters and it causes him issues. And Fury also can't pull the trigger like he used to. Usyk is very cautious against Fury because he knows Fury is right there with him mentally.

[JimRaynor]

He is a great boxer in a bad era.

It is not his fault, he can only fight guys that live in his era.

He would be legit in any era.

It's not even really a bad era, certainly no worse than when Wladimir or Larry Holmes reigned. This era had/has noteworthy superstars in Usyk, AJ, Fury, Wilder. It also had/has worthy contenders in Dubois, Parker, Kabayel, Zhang, Hergovics, Ruiz, Chisora, Joyce, and Whyte.


Who did the era before that have aside from the Klitschko's? Pulev, Chambers, Peter, and Areola?

The era before that was the Lewis era and who was the top contenders there aside from the Klitschko's and Lewis? David Tua, John Ruiz, Golota, Maskaev, and Hasim Rahman? I wouldn't rate that any better than today I'd argue it was worse.

The 90's had some great fighters no doubt, and I'd say that was the golden era, but go one more decade back to the 80's and aside from Larry Holmes and then Tyson you got nothing.

[Crutchman]

'Yet the problem was, because he could fight no other way, he had no choice but to continue doing what he knew was never likely to work.'

One of the better lines I've read that accurately summed up a fight in so few words.

It really applied starting from late in round one. I can't say that I've ever seen a unification fight where one person held such an otherworldly stranglehold on the way the fight would be fought from such an early stage. Even when there is a clear talent gap, the other party generally has a period of trying to bring the fight back to their preferred style. If nothing else they don't signal defeat so early in a contest.

Dubois looked defeated before the first round ended. Don't think that I've ever seen it so clearly, so early. He awoke to the reality that Usyk was smarter, faster, smarter again, and meaner.

Utter dominance. What a stupendous talent he is

[Liondw]

He's an all time great. I don't know why people go on about 38, that's young, especially for a heavyweight.

Yes, I don't think he would be in my top eight or ten of heavyweights of all time, I don't think Usyk would beat the greats of the past. Still, he's achieved great things, and I tip my hat off to him.