You better start learning how to swim like a damn dolphin before Serge catches you not obeying the Usyk protocol of considering him the perfectest being that has been perfected to ever perfect.
I have some people on ignore so maybe I literally just can't see it, but who here is saying Usyk is as good as Duran and Ali? Usyk is a two division undisputed champion and has beat all the best fighters his era has to offer whilst being undefeated. Gassiev, Briedis, AJ and Fury. Why shouldn't he being compared to other ATG heavyweights?
That's why i seldom talk boxing in general except for enjoying the RBR's in there. They can be a mess too with scoring at times being many many rounds different from each other as some give every half competitive round to the guy they are invested in
It's pretty bad. Sometimes it feels like posters there are fans of certain fighters rather than of the sport. A lot of guys there say that Usyk should just retire and not rematch Fury or fight guys like Parker and Hgrovic. While it would be a fairy tale like ending for him, it would just deprive him of even more potential greatness. They act like he cleaned out the division, but he really only just beat the top names. If he keeps being relatively active and retires at 40 he could still have a decent title reign, allowing him to potentially clean out most of the division, which could result in him actually being a top 10 HW. But people just want him to retire undefeated so that they can continue to ride that ship until the end of time.
I've never been a fan of comparing fighters from different era's because there are just so many variables. All I know is I have been watching Uysk since his amateur days and he is about as good as I have seen in the upper weightclasses. When I'm talking about his greatness, it's not about what he did a few weeks ago. It's the way he has handled every level from the amateurs, Cruiserweight and Heavyweight divisions. He has ducked no one and fought and beat every style of fighter. He's like Duran and Ali in that he will literally fight anyone. A true champion that is unfortunately in an era where the sport has zero crossover appeal. He will never have the impact on the sport that Dempsey and Louis had but he would beat the brakes off both of those guys without question in my mind.
I wasn't specifically talking to you in my original comment of course. I don't factor ams in much to be honest. But yes he's a great fighter. I'm not totally convinced he'd beat Louis but it's all opinion for sure. He may go down as the greatest fighter of his era. As i said tho if Fury did actually come back and beat him well that would be affected. I concur it's refreshing to see someone taking gambles and taking on every man and his dog. He has only had 22 fights tho and that will factor into his rankings, resume wise, across time. There's very little filler which will, on the flipside, help.
This resonates. I had known Usyk was popular on here, but it wasn't until the Fury fight I realized he was THAT popular (and I might say the Anti-Fury sentiment was inescapable). Some of the support Usyk garners from his popularity is reasonable. A fair bit of the commentary isn't.
Sonny Liston's widow, Oda Mae Brown, once had a Jumbo Cummings fight on the TV, and when seeing Jumbo's arm, she exclaimed "That's it! That's Sonny's John Thomas on the TV!" but shortly thereafter realized it was just Jumbo's arm, which was flexed at the time. She calmed down after that but it had really, really given her a start, thinking she saw her dead husband's dong on the TV.
If they could fight heavyweight then they would. Fact is he has not had that many fights at heavyweight to be consider an all time great at that weight class no matter how you try to change it up.
One notable consideration is that a 210 to 220 pound 'Heavyweight' doesn't need to first boil down to and weigh in at 200lbs or less to compete as one.
In my casual browsing of posts yesterday, I somehow missed this^ cracking effort. Re Joshua, it wasn't all that long ago I read a post that began "Joshua definitely beats Zaire Ali". This was even after the split pair between he and Ruiz. Not much time, later Usyk had soundly beaten Joshua and 'the crowd' goes silent again (The forum really does, at times, remind me of a footie crowd, with each clubs' fans watching their teams exchange goals). Sums up my take - in a ' giant nutshell'
Well theres alot of people claiming in General Forum that Usyk is the "GOAT" and a "Top 10 ATG Heavyweight" which is as @JohnThomas1 said is people getting carried away with 1 big win. I don't think Usyk has beaten a single fighter who I consider great, obviously Usyk beating bigger fighters deserves alot of credit and I rate him pretty highly for it. But as I said people are getting a bit too carried away Usyk is not the GOAT and hes not a top 10 ATG Heavyweight. It's fair to say Usyk is a top 20 Heavyweight and in the region of top 30 ATG and I think that's a pretty balanced reasonable take without going OTT. Fans are fickle though if Usyk loses his next fight you'll have threads on here claiming "Usyk was overrated".
I'd suggest that Usyk, right now, would maybe just about break into the Top-30 ATG Heavyweights. And, when I look at the other great names that reside in and around the P4P Top-30 ATGs, I probably wouldn't be placing him so highly in that list, either.