Rico Verhoeven vs Oleksandr Usyk official for WBC Heavyweight Championship — May 23 in Egypt (DAZN)

As I've said many times before, although it really shouldn't need to be explained. Extensive amateur careers of 300 or more fights, even a lot less than that, puts a ton of wear and tear and mileage on your body and in the amateurs you're not fighting unskilled bums, E, F and G levels, or even fighters who have no idea how to actually fight, like prospects in the pros so often are for the first 20 or so fights of their career which FTR is a huge percentage of their careers, often 50% or more of their careers or roughly 25% of it for those with longer careers.

You're fighting the best fighters in your city, region, country, continent, or the world who actually know how to fight and Usyk has been fighting at the elite level continuously amateur and pro for over 20 years against the best in Europe and the world sans his first 9 pro fights.

Even being a member of the national squad you're going to be sparring constantly against a very high level of sparring partners, whether it be ones from your country or other countries.

And he's also notorious for training like a maniac and he trains daily year round even when out of camp regardless of whether it's boxing training or not. That alone is going to put a ton of wear and tear on your body

It's comical how we keep hearing how Belly and AJ are done or well past their best, and I'm not even talking about people saying this now people have been saying this for years, despite them having a combined total of 149 fights amateur and pro and Usyk being older than both

AJ
33 pro
43 amateur

Greedy Belly
38 pro
35 amateur

But Usyk is supposedly still in his prime and fresh at 39 y/o after having 370 + fights amateur and pro and having been boxing at the elite level for over 20 years and fighting way more top and elite opponents than both amateur and pro and whilst up at HW ones way bigger and heavier than him and his camps sparring much bigger guys, especially at his age with all that decades of wear and tear on his body, will take a huge toll on his body too


You don't have to take my word for it you can just listen to what what fighters who had extensive amateur careers will tell you from their own mouths in the numerous interviews I've posted and none of them had near as extensive ones as Usyk

You can also just look no further than amateurs who burned out in the amateurs who way too early in the pros due to said too extensive amateur careers.

Dave Allen said the other day that he felt Makhmudov was well past his best when he lost to him and that from the tapes he studied was a much better fighter in the amateurs

As I've been telling your all for years, Usyk has been past his prime for a long time and has slowed down a lot. He might still be the best in the world but he's a much lesser version of his former self in terms of speed, reaction times, reflexes, agility, sharpness, fluidity, and accuracy even. He

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Stephen ''Breadman'' Edwards

''Most prevalent is his age. Usyk is 38 and Itauma is 20. That’s 18 years of wear and tear that Usyk has on him that Itauma does not. In my experiences in the gym, there is a vast difference in reaction time with that much of an age gap, even if the older fighter is better.''

 

Amateur boxing is not tiddlywinks

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Key arguments for why amateur boxing may not be safer than professional boxing include:

Frequency of Head Trauma: Amateur boxing is often described as a "sprint" with high-intensity rounds that prioritise landing a high volume of punches for points. This can result in a higher frequency of subconcussive blows compared to the more paced, "marathon-like" nature of professional bouts.

Controversial Role of Headgear:
Increased Target Size: Some argue headgear makes the head a larger target, potentially leading to more landed punches.
False Sense of Security: It may encourage riskier, more aggressive behaviour by providing a perceived safety cushion.

Rotational Force and Vision: Headgear can impair peripheral vision, making it harder to see and avoid incoming strikes, and the added weight may increase rotational forces on the brain during impact. These factors led the International Boxing Association (IBA) to ban headgear for male senior amateurs in 2013.

Tournament Intensity: Elite amateur boxers often compete in tournaments where they may fight up to five times in five days. This rapid succession of bouts may not allow adequate recovery time between repeated head impacts.