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

A true warrior doesn't take a gimmick fight instead of a mandatory that the whole world demands, just because a Saudi billionaire man-child wanted to see Spider-man fight Batman. Nor does he underestimate an opponent, coming in the worst shape of his life, as if he expected Rico to wake up every day and train his ass off just to be his pay day. That's the behaviour of an arrogant king who's never touched grass, not a warrior's.

A warrior certainly doesn't mess around with his fan's expectations, talking about pointless trilogies and fights with washed former champions like Wilder. Nor does he consistently fight once a year for a half decade stretch, with the inactivity effectively holding the division back and doing nothing for it to advance.

Don't get it twisted. Usyk is no coward, and hes certainly fought several fights bravely. But a warrior in the same gladiatory sense that Marciano was ? That's just not something Usyk ever was.

 

Anthony Joshua struggled vs Jake Paul

 

You're such a poor loser.

Imagine wanting to prove modern Boxing's superiority by pitting an 185 lbs man against 250 lbers. Put Duran vs Benavidez while you're at it

Usyk went life and death with a kickboxer who fought like a Walmart Archie Moore. It'll be ok if you accept it, it might even make you feel better. There are other fighters to latch your self worth onto.

 

HWs a HW. You told me it's the same division regardless of weight. What are you changing your mind now?


I'm okay with Usyk's performance because he's old and still won. One bad performance when he's almost 40 doesn't take away from his legacy. You're the one who won't shut up about how horrible he is because of one fight. But when one of your favorites has a bad performance it's excuses everywhere. Funny how that works.

 

Usyk fought a murderer’s row look at his resume if that isn’t a warrior I don’t know what is. We need to consult Eubank Sr and his warrior’s code and we will find out whether the Ukrainian is a rabbit or a warrior.

 

Usyk will go on to beat Kabayel and Itauma and then retire as the GOAT.

 

Bravo for the thread name

 

I've never told you that. I've told you, as many other smarter posters than you have, that older HWs should be ranked as HWs, for the very simple reason that they were considered HWs at a time that CW didn't exist. Applying modern standards on eras where said standards didn't apply, and haven't applied for most of Boxing history, when discussing Boxing historically, is just clown logic.

What about Rico being 37 with 200+ pro kickboxing rounds that included brutal wars and KO losses ? Doesn't matter huh ? It didn't seem to matter for Usyk 10 months ago either, he was even going on about how 38 is young after stopping one of the still leading HW contenders. Suspicious how you don't bring that up.

A top 3 P4P elite struggling with a 1-0 non-boxer before a stoppage is embarrassing. Full stop. Literally never happened before. Even in the cases of Patterson and Fury, they were just "good for Heavyweights", not the best regardless of weight. Usyk's entire legend is built on being a near unparalleled boxing brain that is up there with the best ever. But the moment someone introduces an active guard, doesn't get enchanted by his lead hand work, and forces him to fight instead of having a turn-based fencing match, he's lost. And unlike older fighters who had 200 fights to worry about, and didn't have hyper specialised training camps for every opponent, Usyk's been a pro for 13 years and just had only his 25th fight. He had all the time in the world to prepare, like in every fight of his career, and still looked elite last year. There's no excuse here other than simple unprofessionalism.

And spare me the tiring "modern Boxing hater/hyper classicist" baloney already. I've supported Usyk for years. Just look at my history. Picked him over Holmes, Liston and Foreman in H2H match ups. Nearly ranked him over Holyfield P4P at one point as well. I'm not shutting up about this because I'm disappointed in a fighter whose ability I believed in, and whose success I was rooting for, because he embarrassed himself.

The difference here is clear. I'm reacting to reality. You're reacting to me.

 

Usyk fans, the blinded by the light ones, are reminding me of Spurs fans today. They are celebrating this win and looking for ways to defend their man in the same way Spurs fans are celebrating only being the fourth worst team in the Premier League and avoiding the drop..

It is possible to be a fan, be open minded and be honest. I am an Usyk fan. He was dreadful last night. He was uncharacteristically out of sorts, out of shape even. And for that I'll give him a pass because he has been a consumate professional upright to now. I'll give him credit for biting down and getting the job done. But I won't celebrate a performance like this. And tellingly...neither did Usyk. He seemed dissapointed and despondent himself.

 

There was another round left. usyk wins no matter what.

 

You are comparing a man's solo sport to a little girl's team sport.