Since Usyk has no plans to fight Kabayel, should he vacate the WBC title?

In their countries on a deck stacked in their favour or on neutral soil sans Okolie vs x 1 vs the Polish bricklayer he dwarfed in size

I have a lot of respect for road warrior J-Park and his Usyk-like approach to fighting in his opponent's backyards and I felt sorry for him when he lost to Fabio even though I'm a fan of Fabio too. Usyk said he would've fought J-Park had he beaten Fabio but he lost and the fact he was such a road warrior like Usyk came back to bite him in the ass and it very well might have cost him the W vs Fabio and all of these guys who've ''earned their shots'' have tried to get Usyk to fight them in their backyards when he's 38-39 and he has already defied the odds and the powers that be by beating his opponents at HW at least once in their backyards sans Belly who he agreed to fight in the UK and I don't even consider Saudi neutral soil for Usyk vs Belly and AJ.

Guess what? That could very well come bac to bite Usyk in the ass too so why are they all trying to get an old man to fight them on a deck stacked in their favour when he's the champ and calls the shots?

Already explained many times why Usyk fought Dubois a second time and not J-Park and Usyk has changed his mind about who he's planning to fight how many times now?

Truth is I have been very clear about Uysk needing to fight either Kabayel or Fabio after his one ''gimme'' fight vs Rico and that if he refuses to fight Kabayel he should be stripped of his title or vacate. Do you think I want him to fight these young hungry lions sooner or later given his age and decline? If I had my way he's be fighting Fabio or Kabayel next instead of Rico because the chances of losing to them increase exponentially the longer he leaves it. But by the same token, for reasons I have explained 100 times, I do not begrudge him this ONE FIGHT vs Rico at this stage of his career.

You keep saying this but he had an extremely extensive amateur career and that comes with a lot of wear and tear too and so does fighting and sparring against much bigger men, even more so in your mid to late 30s, and I've posted numerous fighters from elite world champions, multi-weight champions etc. saying this themselves from their own experience and much less extensive amateur careers than Usyk

Usyk relies on speed, athleticism, reaction times, reflexes, agility and mobility and he has has already declined in those areas a lot and I mean years ago. I've been telling you all this for ages because I've been a big fan of his since 2008 and I have seen every incarnation of him so him being so ''well preserved'' because he's had a short pro career is disingenuous.

No he did not look as good as he ever has at HW in his last fight. He has looked noticeably slower and less agile for years, even from Dubois 1 to Dubois 2 I see a cleat decline. Yes he got Dubois out of their quicker in the rematch but we already know when you **** Usyk off you get a meaner more spiteful version of him and he was really sitting down on his power and wanted to silence the doubters and punish Dubois and his team for their disrespect, insults and behaviour

He vacated his title and Fabio is now the champ. He's having this one fight and then he said he's planning on fighting a unification match up with the winner of Fabio and Dubois. Again, this is ONE FIGHT against a so called ''soft touch'' during a career of nothing but tough touches when he's 39 at the end stage of his career and the idols of those complaining about it had numerous or many soft touches during their primes

Let's just wait and see what happens after he's fought Rico. I've already made it abundantly clear what I would prefer and what he needs to do after that or what needs to happen to him if he doesn't

 

Been though the J-Park situation in my previous post. Whilst I respect J-Park a great deal for being a fearless road warrior, as I've been saying for years

You keep fighting in your opponent's backyard, you're going to get robbed or done dirty eventually if not numerous times

If you keep fighting KO artists and legit punchers, you're going to get KTFO eventually.

If you keep fighting young lions or much younger fighters, especially when you're old and past your prime yourself, Father Time is going to beat your ass

And if you keep fighting giants way bigger than you, you're going to come unstuck

Well, Usyk is doing and has been doing that simultaneously all the time at HW and doing some of it very often down at CW

And B2B with zero use of dirty tactics and deck-stacking when so few others do or will do the same

This is all important context

Hence why, along with other reasons I have explained, I give him a free pass for this ONE 'soft touch'


People are desperate to compare this to situations with other fighters when it's not the same

Well, let's see what happens after Rico given how often he has changed his mind I've already, as explained god knows how many times, made my position very clear re. what I would like him to do, what I think he should do, and what should happen to him if he doesn't so I'm not sure why people are acting like I haven't or I'm being unreasonable.

 

Oh really? J-Park would've been a relatively easy assignment for him and I believe he would've fought him had he beaten Fabio. So I guess you don't believe he has any intention of a fighting a trilogy vs Belly considering he said he would never give him another shot, right?

What neutral ground argument? I said Usyk has forged a career fighting on a deck stacked against him in his opponent's backyards, you know, where the risk of you losing via hook or crook is that much greater, skyrockets even, and on the road, and how I don't consider 'neutral' Saudi neutral soil for him vs Belly and AJ given how they were very open about what their plans were re. AJ vs Belly which they were desperate to make and who they were rooting for to win, especially in the Belly fights

Those guys haven't been doing that they've been fighting exclusively at home on a deck stacked in their favour or in Saudi which was more neutral ground for them. But they're trying to dictate to Usyk where he should fight them when he's the champ and and old ie. on a deck stacked in their favour when they already have size and youth advantages or huge ones.

AJ, Belly, Dubois are not slow HWs they are fast for their size and they are all younger or much younger than him and he has had to bulk up a lot to fight them which he wouldn't have had to do in previous eras because the HWs were generally not as big as these SHW sized HWs of today who hold huge size advantages over Usyk and they're athletic and coordinated unlike the SHW giants of certain eras. All these giants have been fast enough to hit him flush many times but they're so slow?

You think the prime young or younger much faster extremely agile razor sharp reaction times and reflexes Usyk wouldn't have danced rings around them and beaten them easier? He's slowed down A LOT

Do you use this same speed argument to try and discredit the likes of Roy, Floyd and others?

Yes it is disingenuous. I have to keep explaining the same thing over ands over again

But I'll just leave it to the actual pros AGAIN

'I think what people gotta realize is that, you know they look at my age now of 32 and they don't realize how long I've been doing this since I was 9 years old. That's 22, 23 years.''

--Andre Ward

"People see what I do fight night, they see under the lights, but they don't see the toil, they don't see the grind, they don't see just the pain, the physical pain that you go through, not just in the fights, but to prepare and to get ready for those battles," he said.

"I felt the physicality of the sport, not just in the ring stuff, but the training and the preparation, start to take its toll on me for the last two or three years and I bit down and continued to push through and at this point, it's time and I know it's time."


“I want to be clear — I am leaving because my body can no longer put up with the rigors of the sport and therefore my desire to fight is no longer there,” Ward, 33, said in a statement on his website. “If I cannot give my family, my team, and the fans everything that I have, then I should no longer be fighting.”

“I’ve been boxing for 23 years, and just the cumulative effect of all the training and all the fights, it just starts to wear on you, and it starts to take your desire,” Ward said

David Haye

Timestamped

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"He's getting older, he's no spring chicken," Haye told TNT Sports

"Are those legs as good as they were five years ago? I don't believe so. He needs to use his youth, strength, his side and his aggression. He doesn't have that many miles on the clock.

"Usyk has had a lot of tough fights even back at cruiserweight. Hundreds of amateur fights. He's worn, he's torn. He's seasoned but he's at the end of his career.

"If you look at the two fights with Anthony Joshua he looked significantly better in the first fight as he did the second fight. He's going the right way, Dubois is coming into his peak now. Hopefully this can be the fight where he can prove to the world that he is No. 1.

"All it takes is one clean shot followed by a cluster of punches to end the fight. He has the capabilities, he's done it before against lower opposition but in the heavyweight division crazy things happen."

Froch saying exactly the same - that he knows how he felt at 36 years old

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Ward 120 amateur fights
Haye had 96 amateur fights
Froch had 88 amateur fights

Teofimo Lopez on Loma

''I think that he's on his way out. I really do believe that and 135 is just too much of a big weight class for him''

''If you look at the Luke Campbell fight, you can see there is just a lot of wear-and-tear on his body.

“I look at it like this—maybe this whole COVID-19 year helped him out. Maybe he needed it. That way he can probably at least hang in there a little bit with me. It’s going to be a great fight. I just look at the facts. You see a fighter who has gone up in weight class. Sometimes they go up too much where their body isn’t used to it, or the weight class is too big for them.''

“This man has had over 400 fights. I have over 150 fights. I’m 23. I’m going to tell you this, when I get to camp, oh man, my body aches sometimes. If I’m 23 and dealing with stuff at this age, I can only imagine what he must be going through at 32 with over 400 fights.”


Those guys were fighting 3-4 times a year at Usyk's age with all the distractions and interruptions Usyk has had going on during his HW tenure? Again, it's not the same

For the last time this is ONE fight let's wait to see what he decides to do after he's fought Rico until we hang him for doing what he hasn't done yet but so many are so thirsty to act like he has done already.

 

I like you DMT you're a good poster and believe me I hate arguing with a vengeance, especially with people I like, and I've been arguing an awful lot online these past few months with people I hate, let alone dislike, and it's exhausting and I really shouldn't have been doing it because I have a lot of other things stressing me out at the moment and I've not been sleeping well at all

In short. I understand the criticisms you and others have regarding this fight, and I take them on board when it comes to posters I respect and I know aren't haters, and whilst I myself would rather Usyk fought Fabio or Kabayel next, and that he should fight both before he bows out and be stripped if he doesn't face Kabayel, he's old and on his way out and the chances of him losing skyrocket at his age, let alone vs much fresher, bigger and more powerful hungry young lions, and he's given us all the fights we've wanted to see, fought all the lions, and run through a murderer's row of punchers and given the fact his success hinges on attributes that decline with age and have already declined a lot it's totally understandable that he shouldn't have to keep doing so or certainly B2B and is thinking about sailing off in to the sunset. But if he doesn't fight Kabayel he needs to be stripped and he has to fight Fabio next after Rico providing he gets past Dubois

Personally I wish he had just retired after Dubois II