Success at the higher weights is far more difficult than below 154. You've got guys who fight at 140 weighing 165 on fight night, guys at 130 weighing 151. Measuring success from 160+ is much more difficult to ascertain. If Usyk wins a CW title, and goes on to be a HW title challenger, I would say he had succeeded at HW. It's not like the typical 5'9 155lber who can fight for no less than 25 versions of legitimate titles from 130-154. A 220lb fighter like Usyk has 10 opportunities. A 160lber like Broner has 30. :-(
I think he's just too small to be successful heavyweight , altough his boxing skills is 10x of any heavyweight now and he already proved it by making clown out of medzhidov who beat Joshua and by beating Nistor who also beat Joshua.
Today, you can't be a dominant heavyweight at 6'3''. You simply can't. Usyk should focus on becoming a good cruiserweight, because there's no place for him in the (super) heavyweights division.
Usyk beat plenty prominent super-heavyweight prospects in the amateurs. Meaning he proved himself against the future guys that are on the horizon. Including the guy that flattened Joshua. And the guy that decisioned Joshua while beating him up and staggering him. Why is it so hard for some people to believe that you don't need to be a lumbering oaf throwing 5 punches a round to be successful in the current heavies? Usyks skill, mobility, chin and workrate is enough to guarantee him a spot at the top of the division. He'll be what Holyfield was in the 90s.
The thing I'm not fond of in regards to Usyk is that he doesn't seem to sit properly on his punches majority of the time.
I wish you guys would just stop with the size issue in HW's. As yoda once said, "Size matters not" Long ago there was this big oaf called Primo Carnera who was as big as todays "21st century Heavyweights" at 6' 5" and he got beat up by the great Joe Louis who was 6 ' 2" Actually Carnera reminds me a lot of Klinchko, even looks like him a bit. Joe Louis would annihilate todays giants... because he was a skilled boxer with enormous talent. A prime Mike Tyson at 5' 10" would do the same. I just don't see the tools in Usyk to compete at heavyweight. Oscar Rivas is shorter than him at 6 feet. But I know for sure he would annihilate Usyk and dispose of him quickly. Rivas has power and ability, he's one of the few people I feel can beat Joshua. Size has nothing to do with it. I love Joshua and think he is something special. His size has little to do with it. Tyson Fury is a giant at 6' 9 and lucky to have a family to give him skills since he was a boy but his punches land like feather pillows, his size gives him reach and height, which when he moves well for a hw and makes him difficult to hit but if you get Tyson in there with an Oscar Rivas or a Joshua who are smaller than Fury I think you will find Fury on the short end of the stick.
Also another thing you guys love to say that is completely false. The thickness of a fighters legs DOES NOT give him punch resistance. Wilder has chicken legs and I feel he has a good chin. And this will be proved as time goes on. Morrison had huge stumpy legs and the chin of china. Lewis had a bit of a suspect chin and had huge legs as well. Legs have nothing to do with it. It's just an ability some men have and some men do not. Nothing to do with the size of your legs.