Can we straight up say Usyk is the 2nd greatest Cruiserweight?

I rate Jirov in the bottom half of the top ten. Arthur William's was still a pretty dangerous guy when Jirov beat him. His only losses were to Orlin Norris twice and Chris Byrd. Dale Brown was undefeated when Jirov handed him his first loss. Letterlough had only lost to Gonzales when Jirov stopped him. Washington and Castro were decent wins as well.

Jirov was a pretty solid dude. I wish we could have seen him fight Bell or Mormeck. Those would have been amazing fights. Have you ever seen his amauter fight with Tarver at the Olympics? That was a good scrap as well.

 

Yeah, I love Jirov's style, it was also great fun. He has a lot of depth on his résumé, but it's less of a who's who and more of a "who's that?" imo.

You ever see the Gonzalez/Letterlough fight? My Lord, what a scrap that was! Quite literally my favourite fight ever. Tied with Saad/Johnson 1.

 

Gassiev has a good, very tight guard, has tremendous balance(one of the best on that regard, his balance is comparable to GGG's) and has more than enough durability to survive the first half of the fight and more than enough gas tank(far superior to Haye's) to take the fight to Haye. When you also consider that his left hook to the body is one of the best in the game(probably second best, only behind Inoue) and his power is easily p4p top10, he gets Haye out of there late in a fight.

He also smokes the smaller and average puncher Mormeck, who wasn't even at his best against Haye. The only reason he looked crude against Usyk(and that was the only fight he looked crude) because Usyk made him look crude.

 

Right I'm from England but haye seems very overrated on this forum.. usky would have out worked a prime haye imo wouldn't even be close.. usky is by far more skilled.. movement, ring iq, range of combinations. Haye would of had a great excuse lined up tho

 

Haye's reign at CW is more tall tale then reality. His fables CW run consists of Jean Mormeck and Enzo Maccarinelli.

 

Hayes Resume of full of smoke and mirrors but he was a fantastic Cruiser who did above average by winning a belt in the HW division

 

Haye was pretty good. He's going to be underrated because of his run at HW where he didn't really fight anyone.

 

He only fought two guys of note at CW.

 

He is a head of Evan fields

 

It's almost already been said but I've not read the previous pages but Holyfield's achievements at heavyweight are why every claims he was the greatest cruiserweight which is nonsensical when you think about it. Who did Evander beat at CW that warrants him being seen as the best to ever do it at that weight?

 

C’mon now. Both De Leon and Ocasio are strong canditates for top10 cruiserweight ATG(not saying I’d have them there, but they’re definetly strong canditates). Qawi and Tillman were also quality operators as well. Especially Qawi, who in addition to being a LHW great, was a hell of a cruiser also. It’s only a handful of names, but It’s always a handful of names at cruiser.

Put it this way, Tyson was seen as an invincible monster at HW until he ran into Doyglas, and Holyfield was the only one who was thought to have a chance against him. His run at cruiser was so impressive that with only a few fights at HW, many were convinced that he was a tough challenge for the invincible HW force.

So no, whether you have him at #1 or #2, Holyfield’s all time standing at cruiser has nothing to do with what he accomplished at heavy.

 

Yeah I watched Gonzalez/Letterlough live. It was hands down the best Friday night fights ever. So sad that both of those guys are gone.

On another note, I know how much you like Gonzalez. Have you gotten around to watching the Zsolt Ederi vs Gonzalez match? I remember thinking Gonzalez was going to run him over and then get the payday fight with Tarver. Ederi really put on a masterful performance to beat Gonzalez in that fight.

 

You lucky *******! I'd have killed to see that happen as it did. It really is sad, both of them seemed like decent fellas(although I know Letterlough's past is checkered).

Sadly, I haven't yet, no. I'll probably do it soon, though. Lockdown and what not.