DAZN: Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk vs. Anthony Lewis Bellew & Anthony Crolla vs. Daud Yordan RBR.

CST is the homie but he was off here. Predicting an unncompetitive fight null and void any pick.

 

I never said he had a bad chin, but that it was surprisingly much better than I expected. Gassiev barely landed on him and although Briedis did land often he rarely landed clean on Usyk, so his chin was a question mark.

Also, although I already knew Usyk's stamina was a major strong point of his it also exceeded my expectations in this fight. Bellew landed a ton of body shots early in the fight and they had absolutely no impact in the later rounds, which says a lot about his conditioning. It made me look up his training routine and after looking at both Bellew's and Usyk's training regiments I can see why Bellew gassed and Usyk didn't.

Bellew's coach discussing Bellew's preparation for the fight and what fighters shouldn't do.

"What does Bellew hate doing?
Cardio because it's a killer. It's the one session where Tony is actually on the floor. We push him to his limit.

He runs. We do interval sessions. It's better than steady running."

Is old-school boxing training coming to an end?
Boxers used to wake up at 5am then go for a 10-mile run. But interval training is far superior to improve your fitness and burn calories. There is also less contact so it improves muscle strength, and reduces the impact on joints.

Some people in boxing do the wrong things - a six-mile run at 6am, sitting in the sauna to lose weight, wearing a zip-up suit on a bike. There are much more advanced methods now.


Usyk's daily routine involves him running 5-6.5 miles every day just like Ali, Marciano, and Frazier (FOTC) did. In hindsight If I knew he was doing that much cardio I wouldn't have picked against him. Hopefully he keeps this work ethic once he goes to heavyweight, since his stamina is going to be his biggest asset at heavyweight.

When the boxer is preparing for a fight, his typical training day begins at 6 a.m. with an 8-10.5-kilometer run. The next training session normally takes place at midday – either weight lifting or a cardio workout. The main training happens in the evening, comprising punch bag or punching mitt workouts.

As usual old school training prevails.

 

Maybe you should have done more research before the fight then bang on about how bellew was going
to win. I hope you didn't get any money on it .

 

Ignoring the nuthugging and hate, here is my attempt at a neutral analysis:

Bellew took a big challenge in coming back from retirement and HW down to Cruiserweight to be great. A fight with Bellew was always going to be a good gauge and good marketing for Usyk. The deal was done in minutes, rare for this day and age where the lawyers must have a field day making money for doing nothing but complicating matters.

Bellew is a decent fighter with some power who caught Haye past his prime looking for some money. Usyk is a decorated amateur who has been able to transfer that into professional success. Not easy, just ask Fraudley Harrison.

Bellew fought as a counter puncher and forced Usyk to start every engagement. Usyk had the pressure of owning the belts and knowing he had to dominate to win, this was smart by Bellew. It's possible for **** football teams to get nil all draws with good teams.

Bellew's plan was successful at the beginning to a certain degree but he didn't hurt Usyk. Froch scoring every round for Bellew and other British bull**** commentating is akin to Monty Python's Flying Circus. Talk of "picture perfect liver shots" - seriously, are you a biologist? Did you see Usyk grimace with pain? A picture-perfect liver shot ends fights. This is just British hyperbole.

Usyk also fought a very smart fight. There was a lot of pressure on him but he stuck with his plan. Bellew "may" have been ahead after 6 rounds if you're Carl Froch, but the whole fight was Usyk tightening screws. Usyk was landing the jab with more authority, throwing more lefts and hurting Bellew with some decent shots. Bellew was tiring progressively and Usyk was adjusting angles until the punches were damaging and frequent.

Bellew fought a smart and valiant fight. He epitomised what fighters should be today - brave and courageous. He fought a top 10 P4P champion with skills and power and did a good job. However, Usyk performed very well, overcoming the atmosphere, Bellew's gameplan and his own mentality to grind Bellew down and knock him out.

You can't take anything away from either fighter. I'm looking forward to Usyk's next fight. He is the real deal unlike the PED version. His speed and skills will cause a lot of problems for the weight watcher division. Joshua is a body builder, who can easily be outboxed. Can Usyk last 12 rounds? Wilder is a very big puncher, but similarly, his windmill attack is almot laughable.

He is a true boxer walking into the Lion's den of fatties. Will he triumph or be eaten alive? His performance tonight was a good one.

 

Little of what Usyk does is really old school. His training methods are very modern. He does loads of cross training, tons of agility drills, coordination drills, even does mental focus training which is very much a modern technique used in a lot of elite level sports, Loma does this too.

He does some old school stuff like lots of road work which obviously has a benefit. I think the reliance on purely HIIT or sprints for cardio is a mistake, it's fine is your an amateur, but if you are going 12 rounds you need more than just conditioning you need pure endurance and that's what long miles on the road gives you. You ideally should be doing both to improve VO2 max and overall endurance. There's also a mental aspect about long miles that teaches you to push through even when you want to stop and that will help in a long grueling fight.

Basically Usyk and Loma have combined the best of old school and modern methods and that in part is a reason for their success.

 

Forum money. I never bet real money when a fighter moves up or down in weight, since the chance of the fighter not acclimating to the weight or having a bad weightcut is always a possibility.

 

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Iasked you for a ban bet before the fight, you would never reply to me when i asked
If you have something on the line you will analyze things more rationally

 

Guys that was completely staged, Usyk carried Bellew to his career end

 

Talk about Bellew's game plan being good is like suggesting a sprinter has a good strategy by legging it for the first 400m in a marathon ...

 

Well wouldn't you know it, I just got through watching it again (I watched it at a bar last night out with friends, so wasn't fully into it & was a little mislead by the ridiculous commentary) I don't think on reflection that Bellew won more than 2. It was pretty one sided with Usyk controlling distance taking centre ring & feeling him out with that loma like pawing jab. He dictated & controlled the fight, I think what it is with Usyk is he feels his way into a contest, measures his man up & systematically breaks him down. I'm sorry but anyone who thinks it was close or Bellew was ahead needs a reality check & an eye test! It really wasn't.. The cards were incompetent at best! The commentary was ridiculous & the fight on reflection was pretty one sided. Bellew landed a few decent shots sporadically & showed the odd bit of decent upper body movement but he was out if his depth really & the finish was beautiful!

I don't get the big hoo hah about it, that was vintage Usyk! Bellew got outboxed, out thunk & beat down! Very good performance, he's going to be a nightmare to beat!!

 

Excellent post

 

Watching the fight i scored about 3-4 rounds to bellew but now i'm questioning it

See it was all part of Usyks plan to get hit early and miss with his own shots, so i'm wondering if those rounds I thought he lost he actually won on ring generalship?

 

Usyk won all 7 rounds only because he is white, if he was black he would be trailing 0-7 at the time of the stoppage on my card.

Seriousy, dude, how much time of the day are you spending thinking about Usyk?

PS: My favourite boxers of all time (Holyfield, Ali and Holmes) are black, one of my favourite fighters in the current boxing is also black (Joshua). Can we stop talking about the race in boxing?