It's hard to think of many HW boxers in history that have more pure skill than Usyk?

Good thread

 

Two guys that come to mind from a skill point of view are Muhammad Ali and Ezzard Charles. They would both give Usyk a run for his money skill-wise.

 

It's hard to put Ali there, because he had tons of technical deficiencies he relied on athleticism to get away with. Keeping his hands down, crossing his legs and he was caught off guard by left hooks frequently are a few of them. Some people say him keeping his hands down was a good tactic as it caused his opponents to be over aggressive trying to exploit a perceived weakness, but he really did get caught with some hard shots while doing it. He relied on an iron chin and speed to get away with it.

 

Usyk, Bam and Bivol are some of the best fighters ever in terms of pure skill. They all have genuinely beautiful boxing.

 

You make some very solid points. That being said, a lot of Ali skills weren't of the doing things by the textbook style. He used his athleticism to create unusual but effective head movement. His ability to gauge distance was top notch. The younger Ali threw punches from a variety of unusual angles and the older Ali practically perfected the skill of holding while still scoring points.

 

Ali faced tougher opponents as well.

 

Prime Tyson 85-88. He was even harder to cleanly hit than Usyk. He also threw great combinations like Usyk but with more power. And while Usyk is skilled at the art of body punching, young Tyson was even better at body punching.

Ali-Usyk is close. Usyk is technically a better blocker while being in the pocket. Ali was more reliant on his fast feet. Ali was often open for left hooks which Usyk isn't.

However, IMO, Ali also had some skills that Usyk doesn't have to that extent. Ali was extremely good at throwing a lead right hand (takes enormous skill especially vs a dangerous puncher like Foreman). Usyk can ocassionally throw a nice lead left hand but IMO Ali's lead right> Usyk's lead left.

Ali also had the skill to fight off the ropes and IMO was a better jabber and combination puncher. Usyk is more creative with his punching angles and is defensively more technically skilled.

I do agree that Usyk is one of the most skilled heavyweights of all time. Top 10 easily IMO.

 

Holyfield had more skill, and heart imo.

 

You can easily pick Holyfield as having more skill, assuming you do not think Ali's creative use of unconventional techniques & flaws rates as highly as going by the book-& do not knock Evander for slugging it out too often to his disadvantage.

But I cannot see how you find almost anyone has more heart than Ali.

 

I never mentioned Ali, my post was strictly about 1....... of the guys i think is more skilled than Usyk at HW.

 

I understand you search for an heavyweight who fight like a talented middleweight : Chris Byrd and David Haye are the names that come to mind.

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Ali was not really "skilled." Even Ang Dundee said he did a lot of things wrong. He was just absurdly quick, prototypically athletic, big and determined.

 

Usyk’s reign at heavy so far is Chaz Witherspoon, Chisora, and Joshua 2x.
Usyk is 35 so he gets credit for looking great and at an age this is clearly post peak. His stay at heavy will be brief and his best days may be behind him. So he’s going to have a hard time establishing himself as an all time great at heavy. And any loss at this stage whether fare or not will be used to diminish his heavyweight legacy greatly.
Usyk’s best case scenario is to fight Fury next and win. Then retire.
If he accomplished that it would be hard for even haters to knock him. Unfortunately it looks as though Fury is making other plans at moment and waiting Usyk out. It is a shame. Usyk vs Fury is the only fight that matters right now. And at 35 Usyk doesn’t have a lot of time to wait around if we want to see a good fight.

 

Footwork makes the dreamwork and that's where Usyk makes big useless bodybuilders come unstuck.