Usyk and Muhammad Ali have identical height and reach; coincifence or...?

Usyk at least enlisted, but the army didn't want him fighting. Ali flat out refused to enlist. Which is ok.

 

Hype among the Americans.

 

Like Ali would have been on the front lines? His job would have been to travel around to bases, like Joe Louis did, giving exhibitions and boxing classes, just boosting morale. He wouldn't have had to fire a shot in anger.

 

Still, nothing wrong with refusing to enlist.

 

because its like ive been saying for 10 years about these superheavys that were supposed to be too big for those old school hw, that a guy no bigger than ali would come along and clean them all up. the only reason size mattered for a while was because skills, real skills, disappeared. 99.9% of fans couldnt differentiate the difference between size and skill. still cant.

 

That was his whole point wasn’t it, he refused to enlist, not take the army job and was opposed to promoting its purpose.

or did you miss the reason he refused to join?

 

It’s not been a size gap of yesteryear, it’s the skill gap

 

been preaching this for the 20 years ive been posting here. knuckleheads were talking like boxers above 6' 6" didnt exist until 20 years ago. guys that big were around and fought as well as guys that big today. Just not as many because the 6' 4" 220 lb fighters who had real elite skills were knocking them off before they got to elite level.
thats why usyk gets so much hype, because they think he is doing stuff that past elites couldnt do. when in fact they could, and did, and would do today. and much easier in my opinion.

 

Yes, I’ve been of the same view but don’t think I’ve posted much.
The skill level was higher, so the less skilled were not in view as much. This included the big guys.

example, Ernie Terrell was a big man who Ali bullied for us all to see

 

and if you ask who has usyk dominated like ali did terrell, i bet dollars to donuts that they will claim todays big guys are much more skilled. as if they would be able to identify the differences in skill level, lol. frickin joe joyce was being touted as the next big thing at one time by the same knuckleheads ffs.

 

IIRC Ernie was about 6ft 5 or 6ft 6. Some of Today’s boxers exaggerate their height a bit. For example fury is not 6ft 9.

Joyce…you said it all. I don’t want to be harsh as I feel a bit sorry for Joyce, but his skillset was basic. His attributes were purely very good physical dna

 

This is what many fans today don't understand. The Wilder's would have never been a thing in the past becaue he's so limited. Look at Wilder record once he stopped fighting journeymen...

0-2-1 v Fury
0-1 v Zhang
0-1 v Parker

Keep in mind Wilder's BEST win happened against Luis Ortiz when Ortiz was 39...the same age Wilder was for Parker and Zhang. But Wilder fans say those losses dont count d/t age but the Ortiz wins are legendary...cant make it up

 

The difference is that Ali was huge for his day where as Usyk isn't. Usyk is a small HW where as Ali was a huge one.

Ali was successful largely because of the size and reach advantage he had over most.

And people who actually think Ali wasn't huge for that era have zero idea about the stature of 'Americans' in the 70's/80's or anywhere else.

He's basically the equivalent of AJ in size for that era.

As for big SHW's being more skilled it's blatantly obvious. Joyce was never considered skilled or athletic, just tough and big. It's a terrible argument.

Ali would get smashed by AJ/Dubious/Fury. He is way too sloppy. AJ and Dubious would both land bombs and so would Fury. They wouldn't be bothered by anything coming back. Usyk beat these guys largely with defence where he was extremely hard to hit clean. Ali's version of defence is 'rope-a-dope', he got Parkinson's from CTE. No way he doesn't take bombs from these guys. Fury could also outbox him though.

Make no mistake, Ali is not Usyk.

 

Also George Foreman.

People acting like Usyk is a small guy breaking a glass ceiling is one of the strangest things I've seen. Its just not true. Its one thing if it was just people being unaware of the pre WW2 era. But Valuev fought Haye, Holyfield and Chagaev less then 20 years ago! 6'3 cruiser, 6'2 old cruiser, 6'1 HW. Beat a 7'0 HW champion who didn't lose to an MMA fighter a few months earlier. Never happened. Usyk is special.

Usyk is not even the shortest opponent to beat Anthony Joshua ffs.

 

Heights are usually very unreliable, but on the Dick Cavett show, which is on YouTube, Ali was on with Clint Eastwood. When asked his height, Ali replied 6’ 2”