Elephant in the room. When will Usyk start noticeably declining? He's 35 in 4 months.

Yet somehow, despite being in decline and in his mid 30s, according to many on this forum, he's P4P #1.

 

It's a great point though Smithy, Usyk is approaching the age that GGG was when his fans decided he was no longer in his prime. You know right before Canelo fought him.

 

He has atleast 3 good fights left in him which is why he needs to fight fury as soon as possible. He will always beat aj but fury is the fight he needs to take now before he declines

 

WTF ? It not even 24 hours after his win and people already talking about his decline ?

 

I don't buy into this age fatalism concept. Why would 5 or fewer years 'inevitably' leave him a noticeably declined fighter?


People 'age' primarily from damage, lack of consistent training, and poor lifestyle: the years themselves have a much smaller impact. Usyk takes very good care of himself on all of these fronts.


Obviously in 10 years time he's going to look worse, but I'd expect him to retire before he shows any obvious decline. Within 5 years for sure.

 

He won’t retire anytime soon. He can make a lot of money over the next few years.

 

Father time catches up to everyone.
I agree Usyk probably only has a few more years left with his style that depends mainly on his speed and stamina.

Here's the flip side argument. Usyk also has a very high ring IQ. What if he develops his style to suit his declining reflexes. Becomes a spoiler like Bernard Hopkins did as he got older?

Only time will tell.

 

He’s probably already in decline. I doubt he has much good time left in the sport, he’s already had an amazing career though.

What I think people will be surprised at his how far Wilder is in decline, I think that is going to show up quite clearly when he gets stopped even earlier this coming fight.

 

Despite being the much better man yesterday, I felt he looked his age against Joshua. To me he looked my a 35 year old, tired fighter relentlessly climbing a steep mountain and conquering it.

 

Precisely. When I saw how much movement he was using I thought, oh boy, he's going to tire the second half of the fight.

He was breathing very hard and lost a lot of snap to his punches in the 2nd half, but like I said, he was relentless and dug deep and earned the victory.

 

I really can't see Joyce giving this iteration problems. Fury's size and backfoot game would be the sternest test, and a real 50-50 imo

 

I hope Usyk retires sooner than later, well before he's 39-40. Despite his accomplishments, I can't see Usyk remaining unbeaten much longer. If boxing is the theater of the unexpected, I believe Usyk is an undersized technician with limited punching power starring in a cliffhanger.