I remember well cos I then had picked Kudra as a winner vs Dorticos, I had assumed that he will KO Dorticos but upset for me happened, Dorticos in 2 rounds impressively finished Kudra and get belt and next fight vs Gassiev for IBF World Title and this WBA belt.
Holyfield is better than Usyk was in every measurable way junior and a handful of pounds body weight isn't going to change anything
Best just to base it on skill and heart then, as off the top of my head Fury, Whyte, Povetkin and Yoka are all proven drug cheats among today’s top 10
Am I allowed the opinion that a non Nandrolone Fury doesn’t beat Klitschko then? Holyfield already cleaned out a better heavyweight division than the one that exists today. Everyone juices.. especially in the 80/90’s and it made no difference. The elite still shine through.
Usyk looks that now is over the hill. His resume really is undervalued. To get fights at CW division top he had to fight with real top boxers in their physical prime. Gassiev fight, this was undefeated young champion before he get injured and this lad was I think most tough boxer in WBSS1, he was like made from stone and with very good gas tank and power for his size. Awful that he had get injured later and so long inactivity period, young lad. Briedis fight, he really barely had won vs Briedis, if judge realistically but this was PRIME Briedis. Briedis now is old and old Breids had destoyed Glowacki and Dorticos did with him absoutely nothing. Imagine how far worse for him was to take prime Briedis than for Dorticos old Briedis? Damn. Guy really can take a punch and if in good shape beats very hard for his size, also chin had been normally tested by Durodola ( Usyk didn't tested this in reality like Briedis didn't had tested Usyk chin normally ). With Glowacki he fought in Poland and Glowacki was tickets seller and coming out from title fight win in U.S and successful title defense in U.K. He fought vs Huck in Germany where Huck really was tickets seller and had stopped Huck. Huck was better than any CW opponent Holyfield had in the ring at CW. Usyk also had stopped Mchunu and Bellew and vs Bellew he did successful defense as already Undisputed. Ofc I had predicted that he will stop Bellew. Bellew even didn't had fought vs Briedis definitely " because prime Briedis was overrated ". He vacated belt in order not to have prime Briedis in the ring. Later when Usyk was undisputed he demanded that Usyk fight vs him of all belts Usyk then had. Lol and most likely assumed that Usyk is a point fighter because he did not had finished prime Glowacki, Hunter, Gassiev and barely had win vs Briedis. Usyk in CW division had 75% KO wins ratio and still is called by some ppl as point fighter. Because if he had not real world top boxers in their real prime in the ring at CW, he might had rocked up even 20-0-0 record with 100% stoppage wins at CW. He only needed to fight with boxers below top 5 in division and he might had been called as stoppage doctor.
Era is not good if champ is not from U.S, this is casual flowchart for all divisions and eras evaluation in forums. I do not see that Holyfield might easily beat up for long term motivated Ruiz not alone Fury or A.J. And I'm not sure that he might had beat Dorticos or clean out CW division. Huck was better boxer than anyone Holyfield had in the ring at CW. Also Gassiev, Usyk, Briedis, Dorticos. He most likely will beatup prime Glowacki ( 29-31 y.o Glowacki ) but there too risk had remained: with him you can't afford any mistake. He almost get lost all fight vs Huck and then 1 mistake and he had used this with a glance. If no mistakes, he will beat prime Glowacki. Not sure about to beat prime Huck at CW. Really not sure. Also about might he beat prime Cunningham at CW. Not sure. Holy is wery good but like with Haye there are limits.
Holyfield could deal with anything Usyk Joshua or wilder bring to the table. I think he's got a real chance of outworking Fury and everyone else outside of that is pretty mediocre
Whoever thinks 199 or even 209# Holy "cleans out" most top current HWs besides Fury and AJ has been smoking something besides "fine tobaccos" If Wlider lands his right on Holy it's over. I think he has hell vs. Usyk, Ruiz (not too fat), Hunter, Parker, Joyce, some of the big up and comers.
I'm talking about HW. And HW sucks right now. There are a couple of good guys and a bunch of second stringers, mostly. Cruiser is much better talent wise.
Holyfield went like 22-10-2 at HW, he would take a lot of losses if he fought the current entire top 10, if he came in weighing 199 he'd probably end like 2-8.
Usyk is more skilled than anybody Holy faced, AJ has better combo`s thananybody Holy faced except for Bowe, Wilder is more powerful than anybody Holy faced and Fury has better reflexes than anybody Holy faced.
Holy's style does not fit well in today's fighting style/refereeing. We are probably not going to ever again see the kind of close distance wars in a heavy weight (championship) fight like Bowe/Holy, for instance. The big boys of today would destroy him from outside and if he was occasionally able to get close distance, they'd just grap and maul him with size. Usyk would be too skilled for holy in my opinion - and is bigger, too but Usyk does not stand a chance with the giants, either. Size does matter in boxing. As a side not, I have also found it pretty funny how some people in here think that a HEAVY WEIGHT boxer would drop weight for the weigh-inn and after that would come up much bigger in the actual fight . In case of Tyson Fury, for example, it is probably quite the opposite.
As I started that train of thought, that's my fault; let me clear up what I was thinking: 200 is the cruiserweight limit. Cruiserweights [can] weigh-in below that, then rehydrate. So my argument was from the hypothetical situation that a fighter following current cruiserweight regulations could compete with heavyweights, who (as you correctly point out) don't concern themselves with rehydrating. I personally thought it was only someone like Ali (1960s) that could possibly manage the above. Whereas, I don't think any fighter in history is entering the ring at 199lbs and cleaning up the modern division.
