Top ten for me. You can say he doesn't have depth, but he has about as much depth as Foreman and Marciano, both of whom most people have in their top ten and even top five. Now, Fury, Joshua, and Dubois may not be greater than who Foreman and Marciano beat, but they were arguably harder head-to-head challenges because Usyk had to beat men who were significantly bigger and skilled on top of that. That combination of size and skill is something Foreman and Marciano never had to deal with. Not to mention that his cruiserweight wins would be considered heavyweight wins if he had fought even twenty years ago. I really don't see why a bad performance, where he still clearly won, should take away from that.
Have always thought hes a h2h nightmare based on the eye test but no way is he a top ten heavyweight based on achievement alone. Brilliant fighter though, last night was clearly a blip for whatever reason; personal reasons, underestimating the task, age finally catching up, a combination of many things but one thing is for sure, that was uncharacteristically unprofessional from Usyk so I'd like to give him a 'pass'. I suspect he stops Rico within 6 in any rematch.
Given the state in which Marciano's best opponents arrived in the ring against him, I would put Briedis at #1 or #2 of Marciano's best opponents. Joshua, Fury... even Dubois would run the table with ease against Marciano's title challengers. But, as stated somewhere above, Marciano carries a historical asset level that is significant. He didn't really duck anyone and cleaned out what was available even if that wasn't much of quality. It's all in how you balance these factors.
Since we're on ESB: Before having a close fight: GOAT!!! After having a close fight: Not even on the list!
Does Joe Louis losing at age 36 and 37 hurt his legacy? No. Does Muhammad Ali's looking poor and losing to mediocre Berbick hurt his legacy? No. Age catches up with everyone.
If you have rated an active fighter in such a way that it is conditional on whether they take a crossover combat sport opponent and barely controversially win at 39, and feel you must lower them from that spot, then you simply granted them too high a spot because you were being silly. I never rated him in the top ten and found the GOAT talk silly, but nothing from here on out will erase x2 Dubois, x2 AJ, x2 Fury on the back of the CW championship matches without an official loss. I have hesitated to place him above guys like Bowe, who I find insanely underrated, or Liston, who I don't rate that highly. I had and have him between Wlad at ten and Vitali in the later teens. I think Liston, Usyk, Vitali are my 16, 17, 18.
Fighters rightfully get praised for winning titles in other weight classes we have to remember the cruiserweight limit is 200 pounds so he had to adapt to carrying the additional weight and putting on muscle and then fighting guys with massive 20 pound minimum weight advantages. Being heavier or taller is not the answer for everything obviously but it is a significant challenge, especially when heavyweight punches are so titanic and the difference in height, reach and size is quite large. He isn't a small man and is not a tiny heavyweight but he is certainly outsized in addition to fighting the best of the division.
It's wrong to do a thread like this after Usyk's first and only ever bad performance/bad night (which he still won) Nothing changes the fact that the man has completed the entire game of Boxing. Phenomenal fighter and phenomenal career. You're just desperately looking for a lower ranking - to put this up straight after his only off night. It's Usyk, so highly likely in his next fight whether it's Rico 2 or Kabayel, he's straight back to impressing the **** out of everyone.
You're clearly not exactly an Usyk fan are you. So your view is not relevant on Usyk, considering how biased with hate you are for him. You've made about 50 posts and 2 threads, jumping for joy just because Usyk had the first ever bad performance in his entire career.
Perhaps people wouldn't be dogpiling if Usyk hasn't avoided his mandatories and didn't cherrypick a ****ing unranked kickboxer all the while only fighting once a year. Usyk became the very thing he swore to destroy, he is greedy belly now and this is karma
And you're clearly not right in the head making 100s of alt accounts on a boxing forum. Don't you get bored of making accounts all the time and getting banned ? You need to find a new hobby.