Great event. Uysk does what he does in 99% of his fights,eases his way into it. Sometimes gives up the fight few rounds then turns on the style. It decieves opponents into thinking their doing well in the fight and then burn up lots of energy. He keeps the jab in your face never leaves you out of punching distance but doesnt do much. Uysk starts a fight at 10% by the middle rounds he is hitting 60% ,by the last 2-3 rounds he is on 100%. This is why it's hard to take round off of him in the second half of fights. A great example of this is the hunter fight. Only fight he was on his game every round was the gassiev fight, maybe due to fear of getting robbed and calibre of opponent. He almost paid for it in the breidis fight. He didnt bank on breidis also having amazing stamina and being stylistically a nightmare for him. So tony was boxing at a pace he couldn't handle while having success but couldnt put a dent in uysk. When the screw turns against uysk its dramatic. Your drop in stamina is met with him turning up the pace. In one round you go from thinking you are doing well to the next where you can just be getting battered. So uysk wins without a mark on him, gets a spectacular knock out over bellew and probably has the UK heavys thinking they can beat him now becuase tony had success early. I think thats a result. After the gassiev shut out i doubt joshua would have been in any hurry to face him,maybe he will be more fort coming now. Well done tony bellew on a great career too. But he shouldn't have been interviewed afterwards he was seriously concussed .
I like how he smartly pressured Bellew in those early rounds. He would back him up even have him on the ropes but would just stand there in front on him, feinting, knowing Bellew was looking to counter but, Bellew was very hyped for this fight, he was burning nervous energy and the constant pressure of just having Usyk always in front of him takes a mental and physical toll. You just sitting there expecting him to come, but he doesn't, you keep waiting and expecting but it never comes and that's mentally draining. Usyk knows he isn't coming in but Bellew didn't and so Usyk was calm while Bellew was constantly trying to react. It looked like Bellew was dictating things but in reality it was Usyk who was dictating things and Bellew reacting and Usyk just gradually turned the screw and waited til Bellew had burned up all that nervous energy and then pounced. Usyk never rushed things, never looked too flustered. Much like Joshua vs Povetkin, first it seemed like Joshua was struggling and nothing was working but he was willing to lose some rounds because he had a strategy to win even when losing rounds. He didn't panic and just kept jabbing to the body to set up the right hand over the top later on and waited patiently until the time was right to unload and Usyk did a very similar thing. This is boxing at a very high level, you prepare the trap, set it up, wait patiently then spring it suddenly to end the fight.
Pro boxing... stamina is the most important. Can you do what you want to long enough and at a high enough rate?
Uysk is a renowned slow starter, i dont know if its tactical or not, i guess it is, but it tends to work in his favour in the long run. It encouraged Bellew to come at him when before the fight Bellew and his team were ready to be a little wary of Uysks skills. Same with Floyd he seemed to look a bit hittable in the 1st couple of rounds of his fights giving very wary opppostion a bit of encouragement. Canelo took 4 steady rounds to watch Khan doing his thing but as soon as he had him fully sussed it took another round and a bit and he had him sleeping on the floor. But people are straight on here saying Bellew exposed Uysk early, Khan exposed Canelo early. Thats not whats happening dont read too much on anybody getting a little bit of early success on people like Uysk. Last night was just another clinical masterful performance by one of the worlds top P4P fighters. Full credit to Tony Bellew for giving it a go and giving it a proper go hes gone out big, the epitome of "daring to be great". Didnt work, we didnt really expect it to but in an age of the sport where there is so many fights not getting made and so much cherry picking its good to see some fighters just want to test themselves against the best and not afraid to fail trying.
I agree with the summary to an extent but I don't think he starts off 10 % then turns the screw as the fight goes on. What I think he has is a unique ability to start string and hold that level for the entire 12 round without slowing or fading. His engine, conditioning is freakish. What both Bellew and breidis have showed is that he can be outboxed technically, feints, slipping and picking shots he can be matches or bettered in these areas. What no one can live with is his relentless pace for 12 rounds. Usyk didn't turn a screw, Bellew simply couldn't match his work rate and eveade the shots any longer. I saw Bellew slipping, bobbing and making usyk miss with the exact same shots that knocked him out in the first few rounds. Usyk of course is amazing but he doesn't get better on fights, he just doesn't fade and I can't think of any other fighters at this weight level that don't fade. Against gassiev, he didn't turn any screws he boxes at one pace throughout and took every round with nothing coming back.
Great thread for Usyk fans but clearly zero objectivity. He did not make much in the way of adjustments other than looping and whipping the left in more, but the fact of the matter was he was wary of Bellews power and was being outboxed until the pace got to Bellew. He was out jabbed early on when Bellew used it and the right hand connected throughout. He's a very good boxer, but the big guys will walk through him and he'll get stopped, I doubt it Will even be by an elite heavy either.
Out a lot of money on that i want good betting odds on uysk. The few posters saying bellew would win obviously didn't put their money where their mouth is
I agree with jedipimp, Usyk is a superb talent with a supreme engine but there's no way to dress up the fact he was outfoxed by Bellew in the early going and actually made several mistakes walking onto shots etc. I don't think it's sensible to say this was 'all part of the master game plan'. He kept up his rate whilst Bellew faded and capitalised on it with a pinpoint KO. I genuinely don't know how he will fare up at heavy.
I never thought Bellew would win, most folks didn't give him a chance, but the fact is he made Usyk look very beatable. Some glaring flaws in Usyks game which will be exposed at heavyweight and from lesser boxers.
It would probably be a different fight tactically against the big heavies. Early on Bellew was intent on making Usyk force the issue leading off first so he could counter, something Usyk isn’t comfortable with. Against the big heavies Usyk simply wouldn’t fight that way.
Look, I'm not some emotionally invested teenager, I like Usyk so won't bet against him out of some irrational dislike. I'm sure if he ever faces Joshua or wilder you'll get some great odds, but it's kinda irrelevant because you won't ever see a payout. His defense isn't tight enough and he gets stopped or loses a wide UD whilst in survival mode. Then likely moves back down to take on wher whoever is being hyped as the next second coming.
He wasn't out foxed early on, but he was out boxed. But what he did was not panic, he never looked flustered or bothered that the fight wasn't going as he likely planned or expected. He stayed calm, applied continual pressure, knew he was being countered and out maneuvered but didn't just unload and try to force it and leave him even more open to be countered as Bellew wanted. Bellew's plan was clear, box, move counter, be patient, frustrate Usyk and make him over commit, he did a similar thing to Haye. But what Usyk did so well was he realised this and didn't over commit, didn't fight out of his normal style. Losing a round or even a few didn't matter as long as he won the fight in the end and that meant, not falling for Bellew's tactics. Be even more patient than Bellew and when Bellew makes a mistake or fades then pounce. Compare what Hughie Fury did vs Pulev. He was being out boxed and instead of staying calm and sticking to his game plan and strengths and calmly making adjustments and waiting for opportunities, he abandoned his jab, stood in front of Pulev and kept loading up with his right hand. He basically allowed Pulev to frustrate him and take him out of his normal style. Usyk would never do that, he's far too experienced and smart for that.
I agree about his defence. His has a 2 dimensional defence, it's footwork and high guard but he lacks the 3rd dimension to his defence which is head movement. I am a big fan of Usyk but I'm under no illusion he needs to show us more than he has for me to favour him over the big elite super heavies. He might be able to out box Wilder as Wilder is such a poor boxer and relies on his power so much but he's the only one I think he could out box. But in the end Wilder could catch him coming in with a counter because Usyk just doesn't move his head enough.