Man, Usyk's cruiserweight division was good!

Wow have 19 have men already competed for the bridgerweight world title? That seems like a lot considering how long its been around.

Anyway definitely the strongest cruiserweight has ever been, the super six really helped cement the era as well. Not to mention Usyk moving up and beating the top heavies really puts that cruiserweight generation into perspective.

Better than Holyfield's era no doubt, its why I don't understand when people say that Holyfield had a better cruiser record than Usyk, I think they can't help but let his heavyweight career creep into their perceptions.

 

Huck was at the end of his career and was 2-2 in his last 4 fights.

Glowacki good win but he also got blown away by Breidis, Okolie.

Gassiev was a big puncher but was overhyped.

Bellew was an overachiever beating a Haye who was ravaged by injuries.

I don't think the names above are anything special i never got hype with Gassiev personally although it's a good win on paper.

Briedis, Hunter, are very good wins though and the Hunter win aged well considering he had success at Heavyweight.

It's a good set of wins overall but the division has only been around since the 1980s and isn't historically a great division.

 

I just rewatched it to refresh my memory and I'd forgot how bad the referee was.....

That elbow was blatant and Briedis was lucky not to get DQed.

Not to mention Briedis knocked Glowacki down 10 seconds after the round had ended.

Yeah not what I'd call a great win either.

 

Briedis also knocked him down 10 seconds after the round had ended.

The referee did a very poor job the fight was a farce hence I think calling it a great win is a huge stretch.

 

I think Gassiev was overhyped he was a big puncher but was exposed by Usyk for being limited he didn't win a single second in that fight.

And it's not like Gassiev was being overly dominant in his previous fights either.

Dorticos was ahead on points after 9 rounds and Gassiev needed a late rally to rescue that fight.

Ledebev run him pretty close aswell.

I'm not saying Gassiev was a bad fighter and it's still a good win for Usyk. But I do feel Gassiev wasn't as good as some people were hyping him up to be and they got a realisation after the Usyk fight.

I think Briedis would've beaten Gassiev handily.

 

Yeah CW was great before Usyk even. Was an underrated division in boxing for a long time. Now it's pure trash.

 

I counted some other fights for various reasons mainly the WBC Silver. My list is actually 20. If I take McHunu off it will be 19 again. Thus far Rivas, Tischenko and Okolie either retired or left the division after 1 fight.

 

I'm gonna go on a limb and say you weren't around at the time of first WSSB. There weren't any British or American fighters so the division wasn't being marketed to the casuals, you had to be there to understand it.

Glowacki, when Usyk snached his belt in his hometown, was coming off of 2 very good wins, one of which was him ending one of the longest title reigns in the division's history in FOTY over Huck. And that Huck was more or less the same guy that came very, very close to upsetting Povetkin at HW.

For Gassiev, you really had to be there to see what a monster he was at cruiser. He also ended the long reign of Lebedev who was a very skilled operator, destroyed Diablo who was faded but was still very capable. And then there was his fight against Dorticos. You can see Yunier still going strong pushing 40. He was at his best during first WSSB and Gassiev absolutely smashed him to bits. It was so brutal that It's hard to watch it again, even though It was a very good fight. That performance, the wrecking of Dorticos, was by all accounts a tremendous win and a great performance. It's right up there with Beterbiev's destruction of Gvozdyk.

It's extremely unfair to dismiss Gassiev as "overhyped" based on his struggles at HW. Yeah, he hasn't had the success that Usyk and Holyfield had at heavyweight, but who has? The night Usyk schooled and dominated Gassiev and snached his belts in his hometown to become undisputed was when he solidified himself as an ATG, long before he moved to HW.