According to former world champion 'Prince' Naseem Hamed, undefeated Olympic gold medal winner Oleksandr Usyk (15-0, 11 KOs) is capable of beating the very best fighters in the heavyweight division.
This past Saturday night in Moscow, Usyk dominated unbeaten Murat Gassiev over twelve rounds to unify the IBF, WBC, WBO, WBA cruiserweight titles in the final bout of the World Boxing Super Series tournament.
Usyk became the first boxer in the history of the division to unify all four of the major sanctioning body titles.
Last year, Usyk mentioned the possibility of heading up to the heavyweight division, at some point in the near future, to face WBO, IBO, WBA, IBF world champion Anthony Joshua (21-0, 20 KOs).
Hamed believes Usyk is more than capable of beating Joshua - and WBC world champion Deontay Wilder (40-0, 39 KOs) as well.
"I honestly think he would give Anthony Joshua a run for his money," said Hamed on ITV Box Office, according to scribe Nick Parkinson.
"I would like to see him fight AJ. He can work for 12 rounds. He would give Anthony serious problems. I think he can do the same thing [deliver a performance like the one against Gassiev] even against Wilder."
Following his big unification win, Usyk called for a showdown with former cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew (30-2-1, 20 KOs).
Bellew is currently competing at heavyweight and is coming off back to back knockout wins over David Haye.
It remains to be seen if Bellew would consider the idea of moving back down, but Usyk has no problem with moving up in weight to make that fight happen.
"At this moment I heard that Tony Bellew is looking for winner of the World Boxing Super Series and I hope he will see me talking," Usyk said.
"Tony Bellew, are you ready? If he doesn't want to go down [to cruiserweight] I will go up [to heavyweight] for him. I will take extra spaghetti for dinner for him."
