Regardless of who is to blame without him fighting these guys we can't know how he rates in his era. The loss to Dubois means he can't be considered a lock for top 5 anymore. Tua's hard to rate because of his brief prime. Probably 7 or so in his era H2H but lower legacy wise
No **** Sherlock. Of course Tua is lower than Joshua legacy wise. He's beaten all of one ranked contender. Wilder who you blast for being unproven, has triple the wins that Tua does over top ten competition. Joshua even more. Even if Tua was number 7 in his era as you claim. Joshua was Numero uno following his win over Wlad until Fury returned. Oh wait, you actually said Fury was never the best in the world, so let's say Joshua was the best in the world, MAYBE number 2 behind Wilder until that loss to Ruiz. Joshua was unequivocally better than the likes of Tua who gets more wins on here, than he ever did in real life.
Boxing includes winning and losing with injury. Byrd v Vitali was legit retirement win, not any "Technical Decision". Fury is maybe washed up too.. He barely win against 0-0 Ngannou - so the Usyk victory is not worth much. Usyk might rate slightly ahead of Byrd. But cannot be by much. Dubois is his only heavyweight victory worth much, maybe.
Usyk - after the win over Fury - but it's a legimate question. It's not like there's a giant gap between them.
Holyfield was 40 years old.He had won 2 of his last 6 fights and would lose his next 2. An injury win in a fight you were losing is not as creditable as a win that is not decided by injury ,that is not even arguable. Fury was the number 1 contender and undefeated when Usyk beat him.
Usyk is currently six fights into heavyweight, and I think his showings are still better than Byrd's. Vitali (Byrd's best win) was beating Chris ahead of the injury, and without him, the whole comparison completely crumbles. I think it should be clear without having to take away wins, but just think about it.
Joshua was TKO'd badly by Ruiz just a few fights before Usyk beat him. I'm not sure Joshua was ever better than Tua. If Joshua's wins over the likes of Breazeale, Takam, Martin, Pulev didn't have "world title belts" attached they'd be regarded as no better than Tua wins.
He was coming from a very close 10-round split decision against a debut 0-0 MMA fighter- and was even knocked down in that fight. It does not get much worse than that.
I think so too. The win over Dubois is probably the only thing strengthening Usyk's #1 status currently as well. Fury, Joshua, Chisora are all old news now.