“You either retire as an GOAT, or you fight long enough to end up as a greedy belly”

They're only "greats" because they whooped Ali, it's circular logic.

Ali would have actually lost to Rico at 39, he didn't have an uppercut.

 

Usyk most likely would have won on points.

 

The stoppage was premature, however we all have eyes in our head, Rico was wobbling and was about to get clipped regardless. To deny this is simply a cope on your part.

 

Funny how the Usyk fanboys are now saying 'he won!' like it's some kind of positive, when this fight shouldn't have even been happening in the first place. Kabayel should have been the one fighting in the ring! Winning was the expected result tonight, which Usyk almost failed at against a bonafide debutant. Embarrassing display for a top p4p fighter.

 

If this is not a sign for modern Boxers to wake the **** up, I don't know what is. Stop thinking you can do what you want once you've beaten the name fighters of your division, don't fight a mere once or twice a year, keep yourself in shape all the time even off camp, don't be a greedy dumbass who takes gimmick fights and potentially embarrasses the sport, and learn how to actually be a complete fighter.

Seriously, Rico basically negated most of Usyk's offence by not playing along with his hand-fight games, not giving a **** about his jab, taking away Usyk's long range control with this weird Moore esque wannabe active guard, and Usyk just looked lost. It took him 11 rounds to finally capitalise on that weird ass Hunchback of Notre Dame posture, and if the ref wasn't a twat and the judges weren't paid off, Rico could have beaten his ass had he played it smart on the 12th.

 

Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 42 and likely was in the early stages of it by 37-38. I wouldn’t compare a 39 year old Usyk, who is medically fit, to a 39 year old Ali who would not be medically cleared to fight with any decent medical board

 

Totally agree. Usyk has basically lost most of my goodwill lately given that he boxes once per year, has conveniently avoided bouts with mandatories like Parker and Kabayel multiple times, chosen gimmick fights and has now embarrassed not just himself but the premiership of the sport with tonight's performance in said gimmick fight. I honestly think it'd be better for his legacy of he'd took a loss to someone instead of... Whatever tonight was.

And your second paragraph I honestly just think relates to the dire state of heavyweight boxing in general. If Usyk, the current best of the best heavyweight, competed somewhere between 130 - 160 with his style, for example, he would already have losses on his record. Heavyweight is just inferior boxing wise and always will be.

 

He did and I think he knows it himself. I hope he retires.

 

If he keeps fighting your wish will likely come true. Guys like Foreman and Holmes were very effective post 40 because they were big strong natural heavyweights. Usyk has narrow shoulders and the bone structure of a cruiserweight, not a heavyweight. He relies on speed and movement which are now noticeably declining. He's living on borrowed time.

 

Yeah, @George Crowcroft and I talked about both of these things, actually. We both hope he loses at some point now, it'd be tragic for him to be alongside an actual warrior like Marciano as the only undefeated HW champs.

Usyk used to be cool back at Cruiserweight when he fought all these overlooked guys, and when he looked like a barbarian that would eat your dog. Now he got all mainstream and family friendly, and it's clearly affected him as a fighter. As Mickey said in Rocky 3, he got civilised, he lost his edge. He's the Greedy Rabbit to Fury's Greedy Belly now (Usyk should change his nickname to El Ahrairah now). Heck, I once made a meme about these 2, how they're both delaying fights we want to see, playing with our expectations, dissapointing us with fights we don't want, are being total weirdos in general, but one is flirting and the other is sexual harassment

And yeah, HW Boxing always sucked, but damn. It really seems that the bigger they get the less ability they have. It's why I want Usyk to fight Kabayel and Itauma so much, even if the latter is still unproven (not any more than half the guys in the top 10 tho, tbf). He already beat the big, lumbering oaf types. How about fighting the best body puncher in the game now, who's also a power puncher that will land, will push you around physically, take away your control and make your life miserable by actually fighting you ? Or someone that is younger, bigger and faster (a great advantage to have at HW) and has tons of potential skill wise, that could very well rule the next era ?