Dubois defeats Wardley, and the winner is...USYK!

The "back to back" loses its luster when they were either contracted rematches or artificially engineered rematches achieved via belt dropping, ensuring Usyk got to rematch a fighter he had already beaten.

 

The core period of that inactivity wasnt even his fault, Covid, leading into AJ rematch taking a whole year, then for Fury to spend a year playing hide and seek which led to the Dubois 1 defence whilst waiting for Fury to then not actually get in the ring for like another 9 or so months with the Ngannou cut

One belt is fine by me, Floyd Mayweather style, just keep the World Champ status and be the money fight, benefits him when he does beat them because technically hes beating another "World Champion" to add to his resume.

 

I just can't see how Kabayel will even land those bodyshots on Usyk consistently.

 

Are they more than two opponents?

 

I don't see how it loses its lustre at all. Beating a champion fighter twice is far harder than doing it once. Champions are better able to adapt, or they carry more KO threat, and one can become complacent after an initial victory. Usyk was also doing this as the B-side in 3 or 4 of those 6 fights. Fury and Joshua were the best fighters at the time, and beating them twice counts for more than beating them once with other wins over a Hrgovic or a Parker.

Dubois also earned the rematch, he was on the best streak in the division at the time, and has since become a 2x champ, nothing artificial about it.

 

tells you how weak the hw division is when a guy the level of dubois is a 2 time champ. abysmal.

 

Disagree. Depth in a resume matters.

 

Swarmers usually beat outboxers because they're both quick and have good conditioning to match that of the outboxer. He already lacks the one and I don't know how Kabayel's conditioning is. Even if he did manage to pull it off, I don't see him having a long reign. Too many big guys with good power in the division.

 

If he didn’t drop the wbo do you really think Fabio beats him?

 

I mean we're talking about Usyk here whose stamina and footwork is in the ATG category, not Frank Sanchez.

 

Hell no, but Fabio (and prior to him Parker) was still his mandatory and had earned his shot.

 

But he didn’t put those rematch clauses. He was the B side in all but the Dubois fights

 

Which is fair, but I don't like how he essentially set up his next fight via belt dropping so that he could face either AJ or Dubios who he had already beaten.

 

I did really wanted to see the usyk Parker fight. Shame he lost to Fabio. Funny that Fabio was competitive with Parker in boxing but uncompetitive with Dubois