When we look at any of the names you listed we see that they all have dozens of hw fights , most of them +50-80 . This is a drastic difference to usyk,s 7hw fights against 5 opponents . Looking that way usyk is not even close to be an atg in hw . He is short of at least 40 hw fights to seriously discuss this .
Beating cans doesn't make someone an ATG having good wins does and Usyk has 6 good wins at heavyweight which is on par with someone like Foreman or Marciano (I'd say his wins are better then Marciano tbh)
But again, WHO WERE THOSE DOZENS OF FIGHTS AGAINST? It is to Usyk's credit that he aggressively sought out and beat the best. Lot's of guys on that list....Holmes, Dempsey, Wlad, Vital, etc....never did that.
Absolutely Usyk is a HW atg!! Where does he come on the list? Well I am not qualified to answer that but how many have a better 5 fights in a row of HW title fights consisting of beating Unified WBA, WBO, IBF champ Joshua Defending against Joshua Beating future IBF champ Dubois Beating WBC champion Fury Defending against Fury That's a decent 5 fight run
So for those with 40 + how many great wins does someone like Frazier have though really? Ali. Never fought Norton. Got SPANKED by Foreman twice, beat Chuvalo, Quarry, Ellis, Mathis. and Frazier is a bonafide heavyweight top 10 , for example.
He needs to retire before you can really say I always think - but the best answer to that question right now is "yes." Clearly greater than Jersey Joe Walcott.
I have to keep reiterating that he didn't even become undisputed at HW until he was 37 y/o and he didn't even win his first HW title until was four months shy of turning 35 all against much or younger opponents who were way bigger than him and all in their backyards or on the road. The entirety of his accomplishments at HW were post prime. Prime Usyk would've been, bare minimum, considerably more formidable at HW
Ali is the GOAT at HW and you could say he lost 3 times to Norton, but out of all Heavyweights he has by FAR the best resume As much as I think Fury and Aj are overrated, an older cruiserweight stepping up to beat both twice is is fantastic. Add his solid wins of Chisora and Dubois and you can say usyk has the quality to be an ATG He will add Parker to the list after he surprises Dubois Definitely an ATG for me
I just think of you take a step back and were examining a fighters resume from some point in the future and they have seven fights at the weight and their wins were Witherspoon, Chisora, Dubois, AJ and Fury you'd laugh at anyone calling them an ATG. He is a fantastic fighter and one can argue he is an ATG fighter because of his amateur achievements and the dominance he has shown over two weights. This might sound like an excercise in splitting hairs but I feel it is an important point to make. Usyk is an ATG but demonstrably not an ATG AT heavyweight.. yet.
Joe Louis resume isn't even close to Ali It's not on the same ball park. He has more title defences, but he is not close to Ali in quality Norton Frazier Liston Foreman Bonevena Patterson Shavers Lyle young Quarry Etc Etc
It definitely is, especially looking at the lenght of the reign, no controversial decisions except for Walcott and the fact that he beat everybody of his time, as the champion should.
Why would someone laugh at a former CW who beat Unified WBA, WBO, IBF HW champion Joshua And Undefeated Former WBA, WBO, IBF HW champion and reigning WBC champion Fury Beating the above two twice with IBF future champion Dubois sandwiched between the two? It is arguably the best of his era and I cannot think of any other HWs in recent times having 5 such good world title wins in a row Throw in (i know wins were at cw) other noted HWs from this era that he has beaten like Hunter, Gassiev As well as winning all of the HW titles on the road I think the case for calling him an atg is valid Do you think it is better to have filler fights so as to have more wins ie quantity over quality? Say if Usyk had 20 fights at HW, the same wins above and had beaten 13 lesser known fighters that weren't in the top 10 for example?