Does Usyk's last performance affects his ranking on an ATG heavyweights list?

Just as Usyk showed that classic sized heavies with good skills can comfortably handle the poorly skilled super big guys, Rico & Ngannou have shown that Usyk and the top heavies overall are massively overrated.

If Rico & Ngannou now seriously dedicated themselves to boxing, they would easily stay in the top ten and probably earn several shots at the title.

Two halfway decently skilled dudes from different sports, stepping in raw and causing a ruckous by giving excellent showings against the elite heavies of our day, is the absolute perfect indicator of how very far the division has fallen.

 

You do remember that AJ almost put Ngannou into a coma, right? He was lying unconscious with an oxygen tank on the floor... a superheavyweight 6'4 270+ lb man of solid muscle and sledgehammers for fists who eats shinbones and knees for breakfast in MMA. Not even the Boxing pundits thought AJ would KO Ngannou, lol.

Ngannou's Boxing skills weren't impressive though, whereas Rico actually has got some skills and insane cardio. He utilized his size very effectively against Usyk too.

You also have to take into account that Rico and Peter Fury had hours upon hours of footage to study their opponent. That DOES matter.

If Fury-Ngannou wasn't a choreographed exhibition or something (it did look like Fury fought poor on purpose) it was still a novelty fight where Fury went in blind and unmotivated. Holyfield was another guy who sometimes fought to the level of his opposition and depending upon how motivated he was. Before arguably the best performance of his career in Tyson 1 he showcased a poor performance vs Bobby Czyz.

 

Holmes had been noticeably fading since the Witherspoon fight though he almost lost to Williams prior to the Spinks fight.

Ali again had been fading for numerous years he looked terrible vs Young, fortunate to beat Norton in their 3rd fight, was hit at will by Shavers with virtually no defence, and had early stages of parkinsons.

Canelo hadn't had a stoppage in like 4 years and everyone knew he was past his best at that point.

Usyk was coming off arguably one of his best performances of his career in the rematch vs Dubois. And no one saw his poor performance vs a kickboxer coming it was totally out of the blue.

 

Rico's professional kickboxing career has been far harder than Usyk's professional boxing career though.

Rico has been in countless wars where he's been dropped numerous times and took alot of punishment.

Usyk has had a few tough fights vs Fury 1, Chisora, Briedis.

But hasn't took anywhere near the damage that Rico has taken in his professional career.

Rico is also no spring chicken either and as I've stated has alot of wear and tear aswell.

Usyk has also never been that active in recent times he's been averaging 1 fight per year for the last 6 years so the inactivity has never hurt him before.

Let's be real Usyk was coming off one of his best performances of his career and no one saw his poor performance vs Rico coming.

Usyk underestimated Rico he came in a bit too heavy looked sluggish. And almost paid the price for taking a gimmicky fight that's pretty much what happened in a nutshell.

And this is why active champions shouldn't be participating in these type of fights they don't do boxings reputation any good.

 

I honestly don't think alot of people know about Douglas's career prior to the Tyson fight.

Between 1986-1990 up until the Tyson fight Douglas only lost 1 fight to Tony Tucker a fight in which was well ahead on points.

During that period Douglas also beat Greg Page, Oliver McCall, Trevor Berbick, 3 fighters who were world champions at one point and he beat all 3 comfortably on points.

Then you have the stand out performance against Mike Williams who played Union Cane in Rocky 5. In which Douglas knocked Williams down 3 times with a jab which is unheard of.

So Douglas was a good contender at that time on a bit of a red hot streak.

I think people have this theory in their head that Douglas was some journeyman who had 1 good night vs Tyson when that is a complete myth.

Douglas was a top 10 ranked contender at that time who was in the best form of his career for the past few years.

 

Tbh its you that's being weird.

He's had a career spanning 13 years.

In that time he had one 'off' night, at the age of 39, and still won the fight by knockout.

Trying to say that tarnished his legacy just makes it look like you have an agenda.

 

He was a good fighter.

A massive underachiever.

He had a lot of skill and great attributes.

The jab.

The reach etc.

Unfortunately, he had the mindset and the ill discipline of James Toney and Riddick Bowe.

You’d have to believe that he’d be a top 5 HW today, if fully focused and fighting to his full capabilities.

 

If Usyk in his last fight:
- beats a nobody, it won't affect his ATG ranking
- loses to a nobody, it will affect his ATG ranking
- beats, for example, an undefeated Kabayel, it would affect his ATG ranking
- loses to, for example, an undefeated Kabayel, it wouldn't affect his ATG ranking
- beats Fury, AJ, or Dubois for the third time, it wouldn't affect his ATG ranking
...

 

Your clear agenda of claiming one bad night in 15 years at the age of 39 tarnishes a legacy.

You do know he won right? Could easily say that having a bad performance and still being able to dig deep and get the win by knockout, at 39(!) is something other greats weren't able to.

 

the problem is not that he struggled at this age in a title fight, its who he struggled against that raises questions. had that been itauma with his 14 fights in there with him, nobody would question it.
it will mean different things if rico goes out and gets soundly outboxed and stopped by another contender in his next fight, than if he manages to fight his way into winning a strap.

 

Yeah he struggled, but he still won.

So what questions does it raise? Whether it was a bad night or whether at 39 he's finished? Neither tarnish his legacy regardless.

 

Sneaking Dubois in as the 4th best is very convenient.

 

Michael Spinks is no less than the third best light heavyweight ever on film and a lock for top 50 fighters of all time. That is a wildly different universe to what happened for Usyk vs Rico. Not to mention, saying moved up two weight classes is misleading; the CW division was so new it was still at the tit and the size difference was 22lbs & 18lbs. The heavyweight title has changed hands with bigger gaps in size many times.

Ali didn't age overnight, he'd looked old for years and just kept squeaking out wins. Leon Spinks also had 185 amateur fights. That's a lot of boxing experience which Rico doesn't have.