Cleaned out the cruisers and took a pile of HW belts, too. Bring on the Fury-Wilder winner. Fury is probably the only real test left. Wasn't sure when we would see another fighter of Holyfield or better level coming from the cruisers. We have that now, and as far as I know there is no "Evan Fields" issue for Usyk. Also, huge credit to AJ. He took the fight, he got in shape, his gas tank held up and he came back from early adversity in the bout. I thought the fight might be over in the mid-rounds. AJ did himself proud and answered all questions. No shame in losing to someone at Usyk's level. Finally, great job by the judges. All around, incredible night for the sport. Years ago, people like myself were trying to tell the "Usyk overrated" crowd the guy was legit. Tonight, the discussion is over.
Yup this win was no one shot wonder , it was systematic work done by Usyk for the course of the full 12 rounds and winning the last rounds big was a cherry on the cake.
My prediction was wrong, I thought AJ was gonna run away and hug the whole fight. Thankfully he didn't and it made for a great fight, Usyk was an ATG before this fight, after? Super ATG lol
This is a unique moment in the history of the universe, or maybe I've had one too many. It's definitely big though.
Props for the honestly. Usyk seems to have more trouble with smaller guys as opposed to larger ones (I'm thinking of the early part of the Mchunu fight here, I believe. Could have been Hunter). Larger guys have longer arms and are generally slower, which lets "dart in, dart out" fighters like Usyk go to work easier than they can against guys their own size or smaller. Take Chisora. He is shorter than Usyk and has shorter arms. And he's fast. And he came in shape. So people thought if Chisora can do that, Joshua will kill Usyk. But styles make matchups. Usyk's team was confident this week. Joshua did all he could and honestly fought a damn good fight. It's just a tough matchup for him, and a good one for Usyk. And to be fair to Joshua he threw some nice counters, didn't tire out as I'm sure Team Usyk thought he would, and battled back every time. It was a really high-level fight. No losers tonight, IMO.
He is the goat CW and on the way being all time great HW. If he beats my man Fury, he gonna be all time great HW imo.
Olympic gold (was robbed in the 2008 Olympics and would've gone onto to win gold in them in my educated opinion had he not been World Amateur gold & bronze medalist European gold & bronze medalist Won all those gold medals on the road Whooped 3 x world amateur gold medalists and future Olympic silver (robbed of gold) medalist in the WSB up at SHW WBC cruiserweight champion WBA cruiserweight champion IBF cruiserweight champion WBO cruiserweight champion WBA heavyweight champion IBF heavyweight champion WBO heavyweight champion Unified the CW division in just 15 fights Is a two weight world champion in 19 fights Undisputed at CW and three-belt unified king at HW in just 19 fights all of which he didn't just do on the road he did it in his opponent's backyards Ring Magazine champion Ranked #5 P4P by The Ring Magazine Winner of the Muhammad Ali trophy Olympic gold medalist (would've been a 2 x gold medalist IMO had he not been robbed in Beijing), World Amateur gold & bronze medalist, European gold & bronze medalist In just 19 fights Usyk has already beaten six world champions, four of whom were reigning world champions Beat WBA, IBF and WBO champ AJ (24-1) in England WBA and IBF champ Gassiev (26-0) in Russia Beat WBC champ Briedis (23-0) in Latvia Beat WBO champ Glowacki (26-0) in Poland Beat former long reigning WBO champ Huck (40-4-1) in Germany Beat former WBC champ Bellew (30-2-1) in the UK Beat the streaking Michael Hunter (12-0) in the US Beat Mchunu (17-2) on neutral soil Beat Chisora (32-9) in England All of those guys are serious bangers sans the super slick and awkward Mchunu who can crack a little bit himself when he wants to and Gassiev, AJ, and Briedis are 2 of the biggest punchers in the sport and not once was he even really hurt let alone hit the canvas. Name one other current fighter who has fought that many legit punchers and savage punching KO artists in their last 10 fights, let alone in their opponent's backyard the vast majority of them were world champions, only one not being world class, many were undefeated, who have not hit the canvas or been hurt by them? Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year (2018) ESPN Fighter of the Year (2018) Sports Illustrated Fighter of the Year (2018) CBS Fighter of the Year (2018) Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year (2018) Boxing News Fighter of the Year (2018) Usyk won all his world titles in his opponent's backyards, defended them in his opponent's backyards, unified them in his opponent's backyards and and he has had a grand total of one official from his homeland for all those fights, a judge tonight. Very athletic, highly skilled, has speed of both hand and foot, high ring IQ, great footwork and punch variety, extremely smooth and fluid in his movement for a big man and just a supremely talented boxer with beautiful skills. He's also very humble and has an immensely likeable personality, a gent and a scholar both in and out of the ring, bags of charisma, and he is an utterly fearless road warrior who relies on clean boxing to win fights and zero deck-stacking and dice loading and on top of all that he's as funny as hell. He just whooped the three-belt unified HW king in his backyard in hostile territory in front of close to 70,000 fans virtually all of whom sans a small bunch of Ukrainians were rooting for AJ. And he was giving away huge advantages in weight, natural size, reach, height, power, strength, youth and had been very inactive only having fought twice in three years, one of which wasn't even a fight because Witherspoon only showed up to shell up and survive, and had only fought once in 11 months. He only had 2 official fights at HW before dethroning the unified king in their backyard. And on top of that two of his previous three opponents are very good friends of AJ's (Bellew and Chisora) and they were feeding him loads of intel and sharing all the data they downloaded about Usyk both during months of preparation to face him and what they learned in the ring against him and Usyk even invited AJ's cheif sparring partner and ''best buddy'' (according to Bakole) Martin Bakole to spar him for three or four weeks to help him prepare for AJ. When I say the deck couldn't have been anymore stacked against Usyk it's not hyperbole. It really couldn't. Currently ranked #4 P4P by The Ring but he has to shoot up to #1 now You better put some bloody respeck on Usyk's name This content is protected This content is protected
His status is absolutely cemented. It was a sensational performance. Put all the nay-sayers bs to rest once and for all.
Hearn postfight at 1:20 -- "this was getting beat by a pound-for-pound great fighter (so no shame in the loss)...Madison Square Garden, that was different (fluke loss)". This content is protected
What a time in history We get to see a GOAT CW against a GOAT and one of the biggest heavyweights ever. Evander Holyfield would be proud. Fury actually has something to think about FINALLY. Usyk has shown his hand now though.