Usyk has lost 32 of his last 85 rounds.

I can't go that far most of them were cruiserweights with half decent records and a bunch of losses. It's when we get into Alis top 10/15 wins that we start seeing true world class boxers that could defeat Chisora and other modern top 10s

 

Maybe, maybe not. The punch count was about even, and whereas Rico got a handful more power-punches, Usyk visibly rocked him several times.

The general consensus is that they were a bit generous, but Rico was not running away with that fight. That all has to do with people getting caught up in a moment and the narrative.

 

Henry Cooper and a host of those fighters would get smashed by Beterbiev and lose to Bivol, let alone someone like Chisora, he had a massive left hook but was a 188lb big light heavyweight and would get mauled by Chisora. These guys have to at least be about 200 pounds before those match ups become realistic. Evangelista wasn't definitively better than Chisora. I don't like Floyd Pattersons chances against Chisora either

Archie Moore was like 50 years old and very small. Ali has the best HW resume of all time but it's due to sheer quantity plus the high end quality in that top 10. I'd say Usyk has a better unbeaten streak. We have to take into account most of these guys are small and quality super heavyweights were few and far between.

 

Maybe not running away with it but he should have been up on all 3. But in the end Uysk stopped him I guess.

 

I wonder how much bias in commentary, crowd reactions, the echo chamber effect and a massive underdog exceeding expectations affected the public perception of the fight. The effect is almost certainly not negligible.

With this, if a sympathetic underdog throws more, is more aggressive and does better in the last 30 seconds of the round say, they will likely be seen to win every close round by the public.

 

It's universally agreed that Wlad's prime was with Emanuel in his corner. He lost to Fury when he was 39 and lost to AJ when he was 41. Give me example of a HW champion other than Foreman who beat someone from the Top 3 while 39 or older. And wouldas don't exist. If Fury can barely land 3 more punches a round on the old, disinterested Klitschko it's not far fetched to think fresher, younger Wlad, with better legs and Manny in his corner beats him. Same with AJ, younger and fresher Klitschko could have finished him out and not taken the amount of punishment he really taken. But these are wouldas as well. The facts are - Fury and AJ beat Wlad at the age that 99.9% HWs are losing to the top competition.

Leapai had to be fought. Otherwise Wlad would have lost the WBO belt. Mormeck was his fight post-injury and Pianeta was a warm up before facing number 2 HW in the world. Long reigning champions have records of softer defences, just look at Holmes and Louis. And taking K2 brothers as monolith is incorrect - Vitali was mostly fighting second and third tier HWs, while Wlad was fighting top contenders.

 

Usyk has fought the very best of the best at the time since he’s been at HW, and has taken no perceived easy fights (until the Verhoeven fight which was perceived as easy) the others have all been arguably against the most in form at the time.

 

How many fights has he lost?

 

Wlad had Steward in his corner when he lost to Brewster with no rematch for years, got bailed out by the doctor against Williamson and ducked the rematch, and almost collapsed against Peter 1.

Wlad never looked better than when he poleaxed Pulev in 5 rounds, years after Steward's death and a year before Fury schooled him.

It is fanboy revisionism to claim Wlad was disinterested. There is no evidence that this was the case, and a huge amount against it:


1. Before the fight Wlad acknowledged Fury to be dangerous on account of his height, reach, weight, skills, movement, stance switching, unpredictability, confidence and will to win and his late coach Emmanuel Steward had tlld him that Fury was “the next dominant heavyweight” and "the biggest threat"

2. Steward stated after the fact that they prepared unusually hard for the *Eddie Chambers* fight due to his speed and co-ordination, as well as the prospective *Chisora* fight due to Chisora’s aggression, mentality and toughness (despite Chambers and Chisora being bigger underdogs than Fury and having far fewer attributes, and wide underdogs having already upset Wlad three times in the past), and Wlad always turned up in great shape even against the likes of Leapai, Mormeck and Pianeta

3. Wlad claimed to be training four times a day for Fury rather than his usual three. He was in terrific condition, there wasn't an ounce of fat on him; this wasn't Andy Ruiz with a consistent record of indiscipline but the diametrical opposite

4. Wlad (perhaps the most obsessively motivated, focused and disciplined heavyweight champion ever) was closing in on the coveted Joe Louis title defence records that he hadn’t already broken and did not want to lose his titles, least of all to Fury

5. Wlad was fighting in front of 50,000 home fans in Germany and tens or hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide

6. Fury treated Wlad (who clearly had immense dislike for Fury) with total disrespect with his clowning and trash talking, as Haye previously did in a less intelligent way and Wlad’s father being on his deathbed didn’t prevent Wlad from producing a stellar performance against Haye, unifying all of the belts for the Klitschko brothers in his 10th consecutive defence

7. Wlad was devastated when he lost to Fury but almost happy when he lost to “little bro” AJ, even saying months after that he was glad he lost so he could pass the torch

8. If team Klitschko hadn’t been worried about the serious possibility of losing they wouldn’t have played games with stilts, handwraps, the gloves and scales and tried to rig the canvas to inhibit Fury’s movement

 

Outlanding an opponent 86-52 is not a small margin, it's being outpunched by not far off a 2:1 margin per round. For a fighter who specialises in a hit and not get hit style, it's domination.

Fighters in the past did not have the same longevity, most of the best wins by 40+ HW's have come in the last 15 years (Vitali, Povetkin, Zhang). Foreman and Holmes scored big wins at 42-45. Wlad was so confident that he wasn't in significant decline that he signed a 5 year contract just prior to Fury. It is also hard to excuse losing to a never been past 7 rounds Joshua when Ruiz made him quit and Dubois ran him over. Wlad took a huge dump on his legacy and never beat anyone of that size or calibre.

Leapai was astroturfed in by K2 as a stat padding defence. Mormeck and Pianeta were useless. Shot Rahman, Wach, faded Thompson 2. Byrd 2 had a belt but it was a rematch that proved nothing with no risk. Austin, washed up Brewster, washed up Peter. They constitute of the majority of Wlad's defences, before we start getting into the "cream" of Brock, Chambers, Chagaev etc.