He beat the best fighters at cruiser and is most peoples consensus #2 all time cruiserweight. Despite what people think of the division that would still qualify you as an ATG.
sure, hes an atg cruiser, but others have pointed out how many other cruisers have done better, in more difficult situations. so what makes usyk more special?
I voted yes because I think someone can be ATG even if they prove to only be great at one weight class if they are like in the discussion for the best at that weight class ever, albeit a young weight class. But he unified at a time when the division was pretty damn good imo.
I can only compare him to the guys he had the chance to fight in his era, which he was clearly the best of. I don't think he beats Holyfield, but I would favor him over any other past cruiser. I'm not sure hes going to set the world on fire at heavyweight, but the thread was asking if he's an ATG fighter, and he clearly is imo.
hes an atg CRUISER. because of the limited history and talent level of the division. taylor is not an atg jr welter because he beat everyone in his division. charlo will not be an atg if he beats castano. stop awarding merit to usyk that you cant apply with a straight face to others.
When did I say that? I was specifically responding to this: "He will never be an ATG HW though, simply doesn't have enough time left to have enough HW fights."
Absolutely. The Road Warrior ver. 2 cleaned out an excellent CW Division fighting on the road. I expect he will surprise as a HW.
Sorry, I must have misinterpreted your post. Hypothetically let's say he beat AJ, Fury, and then retired. While lacking depth, he would probably be considered the best heavyweight since Lewis.
Thats an obvious yes. Fury is a H2H top 10 who dethroned Klitschko, beat Wilder and Aj is an elite fighter with a decent resume. Those 2 wins alone would put him above Wladimir and Vitali on the great list although H2H is a different story. On the ATG list he wont be as good as Lewis at heavyweight but not far.
No worries. And yeah, in that case he'd likely be viewed as the man who came out on top in this era. Not sure if that would place him ahead of Wlad, but if he beats AJ and Fury in the foreseeable future, that would be mighty significant in the contest of this heavyweight era.
He's the greatest and arguably the best CW of all time. Of course he is an all-time great. He will smash Joshua too.
Didn't 6'7 Wilder say he wanted to move down to cruiser and win a world title there? He certainly didn't have a problem fighting obese super-middleweight bums on the way up. Back in the WSB when fighting super-heavyweights like Joyce, Usyk weighed 211 lbs. By modern standards he's a very small heavyweight and other top cruisers in recent years (Gassiev, Briedis, Huck, Cunningham, Haye) have weighed about the same or more when fighting at heavyweight. If you are on the border of fighting a category down there is nothing wrong with cutting weight doing so rather than fighting far bigger men. This is the case to an even greater degree on lower weight categories, where lightweights have entered the ring in the 150's and middleweights in the 180's. While Holyfield fought at 190 lbs rather than 200 he fought much smaller opposition. Half of his cruiser opponents were small by modern standards and half of them were sub-cruisers, middleweights and super middleweights post-rehydration.