Holyfield vs Usyk | definitive discussion

Yes, Usyk was the same age (older even?) and, agan, Fury being washed up was not the word going in. I also don't think a washed up fighter would have come back so well after the drubbing Fury took in rd 9.

Did you call it for Usyk on account of Fury being so past it?

Joshua was in his prime.

 

I had Usyk beating Fury.

My reasoning for Usyk beating Fury was because Fury seemed to be dragging out making the fight for as long as possible that for me hinted at Fury not be overly confident.

Other factors were....

Fury not really impressing me for quite some time I wasn't that sold on his win over Whyte who was shopworn already.

Fury had struggled immensely vs Wilder in their 3rd fight not to mention the farce vs Ngannou.

Also I believed Fury had never really fought a smaller skillful Heavyweight before the closest he'd come to that was vs Cunningham who floored him and gave him alot of issues.

Not to mention Fury struggled alot vs a mediocre Southpaw in Wallin which gave some visual clues that Fury would have alot of problems with Usyk's Southpaw style.

As for Joshua I don't think he's ever been quite the same since Ruiz bounced him all over the ring at Madison Square Garden.

Since that Joshua seems to be in-between styles and can't figure out if he's a boxer or an aggressive puncher.

But really it's irrelevant because Joshua would never beat Usyk and I'm not trying to pretend any version would.

But all in all I'd rate a peak Bowe over any of Usyk's Heavyweight opponents but that's my opinion.

 

A peak Bowe arguably lost to Tubbs. His best wins outside Holyfield are the controversial Tubbs win and Golota.

 

Fury should've lost to McDermott.

Fury in his prime was lucky not to be stopped vs Wallin on cuts when he was in good shape he weighed less vs Wallin than he did vs Usyk 1st time.

We can all do that.

Bowe was already slurring his words in the post fight interview after the 3rd Holyfield fight. It wasn't his best performance and Holyfield himself didn't look good due to his health problems it was rumoured he had Hepatitis B.

Bowe was considered the best Heavyweight because at that time because Holyfield was considered to be finished, Lewis was still recovering from the McCall loss, Foreman was in his late 40s labouring with his weak title defences.

It doesn't mean Bowe wasn't past it which he clearly was his bad habits outside the ring and taking too much punishment in the ring was the cause of that.

 

You seem to have reasoned pretty much as I did, at least when it came to Fury's stylistical vulnerabilities and his lack of confidence that he would beat Usyk. I did not think Fury was much past it, though. Uneven, yes, but I expected him to be in very good shape for Usyk and I think he was.

For me there's just not enough in it. Not saying Bowe can't have been better on that night in 1992 than AJ and Fury were when they faced Usyk, but nothing concrete enough to have this as the difference maker for me. Even less so concerning the 1995 version.

 

Yes. And even Chisora has gone on to have better wins than any of them had after Bowe, except if you feel Golota beat Byrd at least.

 

Lol!

 

The last part of your post is what I'm pretty much alluding to honestly.

If you're comparing Bowe & Fury's career as a whole then I would say they're comparable two big talented Heavyweights who showed early promise but didn't fulfil their full potential.

But I'm spefically on about the 1992 version of Bowe in regards to his H2H ability as you know its considered a top 10 performance of all time in regards to singular Heavyweight performances.

So pretty much what I'm saying is that yes Holyfield has some losses but I think losses like that need to be taken into consideration aswell.

 

Holyfield had to fight a regenerated, fully functional Qawi in his 12th pro fight. That says nothing? I don't think so.

See ya in the funny papers.

 

Usyk is 6'3 220 or so pounds at heavyweight. Heavier than George Foreman on the night he beat Frazier (217 pounds). The HW version of Usyk would have been considered a huge heavyweight in the 70s and before. And the CW version of Usyk would have been a heavyweight in the 1970s and before.

I don't know where this idea that Usyk is a "small man". Now, if he had been 6'0 185 pounds in the ring and beating the names he did, I would see the point

 

Fury literally won a controversial decision against Ngannou going into the Usyk fight

 

People forget that the two Fury wins were razor thin ... not like the Joshua wins which were clean decisions ... Fury had one bad round on twenty four .. he had multiple especially in the first fight where he had Usyk holding on from body punishment and looking like he was near to done .. that said Usyk I an exceptional fighter with a heart that matches Evander ... H2H I like Evander of the Buster fight as I like how his speed matches up but who knows ?

 

Such a tough one to call. I think a prime Holyfield does what Usyk has done in this era; this HW era is poor. That said, there's a giant asterisk over Holyfield because of the blatant PED use.

 

Both Fury 1 and AJ 2 were split decisions. The other two were comfortable decision wins for Usyk.

Personally, I think Usyk clearly won all of them.

 

I think both Fury fights were razor razor thin. Despite the big 9th the first could have gone either way and the second could easily have been a draw. He did beat Joshua twice.