Is Usyk a top 10 HW of all time...?

Maybe someone should tell the fella Muhammad Ali is the guy in the white shorts?

 

Top-30.

 

Absolutely not

 

The majority of the cruiserweights he faced were easily 210 to 220 on fight night which is bigger than most pre 90's heavyweights. The biggest problem Uysk faces with these sort of rankings is boxing is nowhere near as popular as it was in the 20th century. Most people on classic don't even know who Gassiev or Breidis are. They only know Fury and Joshua but I would argue the cruiserweight run he had was every bit as impressive as what he did at heavyweight.

Head too head, most of the historical heavyweights never fought or even saw anyone like Uysk. There simply were not many top southpaws with an amateur pedigree like him.

 

I have seen Tunney in ATG lists and discussions my entire lifetime despite his HW resume being Dempsey and the long count.

I'll say it like this; Usyk >>> Tunney all day and twice on sundays.

 

1) Lennox Lewis
2) Ali
3) Usyk
4) Larry Holmes
5) Foreman
6) Vitali Klitschko
7) Wladimir Klitschko
8) Holyfield
9) Frazier
10) Mike Tyson

I considered accomplishments through career, skills, hw boxing record and H2H match ups.

I feel that Usyk is exactly that kind of guy which would frustrate Mike Tyson to the max spins. Mike would try to break Usyk's hand like he tried with Francois Botha.

PS I really hope that Usyk beats Parker and Bakole to close discussion for good.

 

This is logical. Prime Breidis is a HoF material easy. The problém is that guys like a Povetkin, Gassiev or Breidis are super underrated, but they are phenomenal at their best.

 

It's going to sound like a weird comparison but hear me out:

I kind of wonder, if Usyk continues along his current trajectory and then retires undefeated, if he might not have the same issues that Marciano has in terms of heavyweight ratings. He's clearly defeated the best available opponents thus far during his reign, but those opponents have been somewhat maligned, and that quality of opposition is (fairly or unfairly) going to be held against him. Plus, for different reasons, the times each spend dealing with heavyweight world class fights was somewhat abbreviated.

Anyway, he's clearly top 20 right now, even with limited quantity. If he retired tomorrow, I'd listen to an argument that put him higher.

 

He might squeak into the bottom end of the top 20. But, probably more like top 30.

 

Yes, he should be rounding it out. Beating Joshua x2, Dubois, and Furyx2 is easily the best five fight winning streak in heavyweight history. Easily.

And he hasn’t lost either.

 

Does anyone today have Tunney in their Top-10?

Nat Fleischer might have had him in his ten, more than fifty years ago. I couldn't say I've seen Tunney mentioned in those terms since the '70s.

 

Usyk’s record in title fights: 5-0
Foreman’s record in title fights: 5-4

Usyk’s record against reigning champions: 2-0
Foreman’s record against reigning champions: 2-2

*WBA, IBF, WBC, and WBO counted

 

Tunney was no doubt a great technician in his era but let's be real, he is not a heavyweight. The guy's natural weight is not even a light heavyweight in today's era nit too mention, there simply were not deep amateur programs back in those days that produced complete fighter's. Yes, there were tough guy's, but from a technical standpoint, most were very limited. Conn wouldn't even know what to do against a technical southpaw like Uysk. Uysk was bread to take away a conventional fighter's offense. Conn would have no answer.

 

Don’t enough for top ten. Maybe even 5 but don’t think he would ever catch Ali or Louis due to low body count

 

This isn’t fair. If Usyk fights till he’s 45 it may well look something like this