This. Old unbeaten fighter KOs a bigger challenger. ESB blowhards: "He was exposed! He was never any good!"
These doofuses think they can delegitimize one of the most impressive runs in the history of the sport because a washed, untrained 39 year old took 11 round to stop a huge guy who'd been sparring top boxing pros for 15 years.
His last fight was a year ago and he didn't looked "the best ever". Where are you pulling this ****? Even in Dubois 2 he looked slower and more stationary. But everyone thought it was just because he had Dubois figured out. Everyone says boxers get old overnight for a good reason. The decline happens fast.
No he didn't at all, his plan was to be stronger and more powerful in the fight and it worked a treat, he scored a proper legit knockout in God knows how many years. As I said from the start, this was embarrassing from him, a 1 fight novice kickboxer should not give a so called generational great all he could handle.
Usyk at 39 makes the Fury of 35 look like a pensioner. One has abused his body all his life whilst the other has clearly trained his ass off and lived like a king, to even try and compare them shows perhaps it's you who don't know s**t about boxing?
So when can he legitimately be called old and faded? Mike Tyson at the same age quit against Kevin Mcbride and a year earlier was knocked out by Danny Williams. Was Tyson old at that point or just embarrassed? I can give countless examples of historical fighters of Usyk's age and younger who have had bad performances.
Tyson had looked shocking for years, anyone who knows anything about boxing knows this. And yes, many fighters have had bad performances, but against other established boxers, not some kickboxer who isn't even ranked.
It’s an undisputed cruiserweight, undisputed heavyweight, highly decorated amateur and a gold medalist. Look at his resume, who else has a resume like that? There is more complexity to it than he struggled with a kickboxing bum so he isn’t a generational great, that isn’t logical. We will find more out when both of those guys fight again, until then we just have that fight to go off and their history as fighters.
the history is that he faced 6 hw boxers in an era which most knowledeable boxing fans consider historically weak. those things cant just be ignored. it doesnt mean he isnt a great fighter, but it doesnt help the claim either. he falls somewhere between the 2 extremes, where exactly remains to be determined.
This snobbery from couch potato boxing fans never ceases to amaze me. You're acting like this was a baseball player in there who had never thrown a punch in his life. This guy is a giant, had unreal stamina, had trained boxing his entire life, and dominated his sport for over a decade. But here you are, pretending to sit atop Mt. Olympus, acting like this guy is coming from the Special Olympics. If this guy is so trash, you obviously think any pro boxer would beat him, right? So, a Mike Balogun who got starched in 2 rounds by Itauma would crush this Rico guy in your mind. Jaemie TKV who isn't even a legit British level fighter would be more than this guy could handle, huh? It would have been ok for Usyk to struggle versus TKV, but struggling against this guy is a bridge too far? Enough already with this nonsense.
I'm saying the guy ain't top 50 in the world and he was minutes from defeating the so called best HW in the division.
Do you know anything about boxing? That's a serious question, by the way. Because what you just said is pants on head ******ed. The talent pool is mega thin in boxing. Here are guys in the Top 15 for each of the four sanctioning bodies. You're going to tell me these guys are better than Rico? WBO: Nelson Hysa (who?) Solomon Dacres (lol) Gustavo Trujillo (who?) Brandon Moore (got smoked by Richard Torrez in 5 rounds; the guy who Sanchez just brutally KO'd in 2 rounds) WBC: Andrii Novytskyi (who?) Labinot Xhoxhaj (with that name this dude might be an alien from another galaxy, I just don't know) WBA: Gurgen Hovhannisyan (say that five times fast) Dainier Pero (useless Cuban whose equally useless brother just got embarrassed by Big Pharma Miller) Artem Suslenkov (30 year old Russian prospect; hopefully Putin doesn't send him to the front) Kem Ljungquist (who?) Michael Hunter (didn't even know this guy was still fighting; hasn't fought since December of '24) Temur Mamoyan (a German so you know he's useless) IBF's rankings are actually solid for the Top 15 so they get left out. Though Richard Riakporhe shows up and he's pretty garbage and Brandon Moore is once again slotted in at 15th. So you're telling me it would have been more impressive for Usyk to fight any of these nobodies instead of the Undisputed Kickboxing King who crushed his sport for over a decade and who is a freak of an athlete and has trained with Peter Fury for 15 years? You'd rather Usyk have fought Solomon freaking Dacres, my guy? And that's JUST the Top 15! You said Top 50! Lord knows what levels of trash I could find if I went 50 deep! And Rico wasn't minutes from doing anything except getting knocked out cold.
Cute, but it's WRONG! (you're old like me if you get that reference) Nelson Hysa #18/1,613 #1/9 Albania Read 'em and weep! https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/895710