On May 25, Oleksandr Usyk will make his heavyweight debut against Carlos Takam.
Usyk, an Olympic gold medal winner, dominated the cruiserweight division and unified the weight class by capturing the WBC, WBO, IBF, WBA world titles, as he won the first World Boxing Super Series cruiserweight tournament.
Top heavyweight contender Dillian Whyte is not convinced that Usyk will be able to make it as a top heavyweight.
Whyte is going to return in July, in a clash against undefeated contender Oscar Rivas.
Whyte said he was more than willing to face Usyk and has no problem facing him at any time down the line.
"I said I’d fight him. Ages ago I said I’d fight him. But I’d fight anybody to be honest. I don’t think he will do well as a heavyweight. He’ll outbox a lot of guys. But it’s the heavyweight division. It’s a whole different kettle of fish. I’m not going there to have no boxing match with him. I’m not going to stand outside and try and outbox him. No, I’m going to try to track him down and hit him everywhere. Any way possible I can hit him, I’ll hit him,” Whyte said to Boxing News.
Whyte expects Usyk to outbox an opponent like Takam, but he feels Usyk can get seriously hurt by one of the top heavyweights.
“Takam’s quite tough. They picked a good fight for him,” Whyte said. “Takam is not very powerful, he’s fit. He hasn’t got a great work ethic but he’ll press the fight. So it’s a good opponent for Usyk to possibly outbox. I can’t see Usyk stopping him.”
"I think outside the top five he might be able to [take a punch from them]. But a top five guy, we’re big guys, very relentless, sharp punches as well. One punch can lay you out."
