Only if you count cruiserweights as modern heavyweights. I don't, but if you do, go for it. It still doesn't change the fact Usyk is unproven against Vitali sized guys who can fight tall. Which was my main point.
Heavyweight isn't the be all and end all, the cruiserweights Usyk beat were way better than anyone Vitali beat. The closest fighter to Usyk Vitali fought he quit against. Hardly fitting evidence for Vitali winning 'easily'.
Hide was a champion. So was Norris, I think. Usyk beat bodybuilder Anthony Joshua, as did Fat man Ruiz. Vitaly lost on injury to Lewis and Byrd in fights he was winning, and had way more fights at heavy. Usyk is a good story and at his age his time at heavyweight is about up.
Hide was the equivalent of today's IBO championship; and Norris didn't have anything and was in-between shut out losses to Andrew Golota and Brian Nielson. The Norris win means nothing and Norris himself would've been annihlated by the best cruiserweights Usyk has beaten. Joshua is a better win than any of Vitali's, no matter how you try to paint it. Regardless, the fighters Usyk has beaten are better than the ones Vitali beat. This is indisputable, just as the fact that they were cruiserweights in name only. Usyk has been facing heavyweights for almost a decade. Vitali wasn't winning the Byrd fight. Not convincingly.
A lot of Vitali's best wins at heavyweight are over guys who really are no bigger than cruiserweights of Usyk's era in terms of muscle mass. I think Tomasz Adamek, Corrie Sanders, Chris Arreola, and Juan Carlos Gomez in-shape could all make cruiserweight without much difficulty. They all seem like naturally smaller men than someone like Lawrence Okolie. Samuel Peter might be the only top 10 heavyweight Vitali ever beat who in shape would have trouble making cruiserweight.
He was up 89-82 and, 89-83, 89-83. That is easily. Calling guy who were cursers heavies is a joke, no they weren't. Hide was WBO champion. Your facts are missed up and you have an edge. Bye-bye.
I'm sure with day before weigh ins and modern day weight cutting methods, someone who is 190ish pounds with same day weigh ins could cut down to LHW or close to it and be back to 190ish pounds the day of the fight. It's 15 pounds between 175 and 190 pounds. Patterson himself, if he were fighting in modern times, would likely have started off as a super middleweight. He most certainly would have started a light heavyweight (he did anyway). When he won the title, he was 182 pounds in the ring. Roy Jones Jr in the ring weight was something similar. For the record, I am opposed to day before weigh ins to squeeze into a smaller weight class. I think you should get in optimal shape and fight in your natural weight class. A 1987 Evander Holyfield was a true cruiserweight. He weighed 187-190 lbs on fight night. The way it should be. Today we have cruisers that weigh 215 pounds on fight night. Keep in mind, Holyfield was 6'2 208 pounds the night he won the heavyweight title. After he bulked up. So the guys Usyk fought at cruiserweight are essentially heavyweights. As for Liston's best opponents, at best you can say they were true cruiserweights.
Yeah mate, he was WBO champion in the 90s. That's the equivalent of the IBO today. I never said he held the IBO. If they were 215-220, they're heavyweights. Do you consider Floyd Patterson, Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey heavyweights? The official cards were bull****. It was nowhere near that wide, if Vitali was up at all. Regardless, he still quit.
Resume overall, on p4p name basis, I'd agree. Resume at specifically heavyweight I would disagree. AJ was an excellent win but it doesn't wash away an entire career that Vitali fought heavies.
Usyk has 3 official heavyweight fights. Everybody knows about them. Vitali has 47. That's the difference.
