Who would win? Deontay Wilder vs Oleksandr Usyk

Sloppy still won’t completely nullify his ability to close the distance for an entire fight. I’m a firm believer in the science of the sport however they’re outliers that exist whether you choose to ignore them or acknowledge them is purely up to you.

Usyk isn’t Willie Pep and at some point he’ll be forced to engage and that’s when Wilder will find an opportunity to capitalize. Did I already mention Usyk has a fine chance at pulling this off with the perfect strat and tact. I just don’t see it as cut and dry for him, he’s going to have fight flawlessly.

 

I never said it was cut and dry, i said he has a serious chance. If Wilder had trouble with Szpilka and Ortiz, he'll have absolute fits with Usyk's movement and boxing ability.

 

Szpilka seemed effective but he wasn’t producing, he realized that and took his chances at racking up more points. We all know how that ended up. Ortiz was a high level operator when compared to the rest of Wilders resume and I think that coupled with his obvious power played a huge role in Wilders ability (or inability) to look productive for large portions of the fight.

 

Wilder kills him

 

Uysk would have to be 100% focused and work really really really hard to get Wilder to fight him. Uysk is typically the type of fighter Wilders been avoiding, Decent and not on a run where he hasnt looked average at best.

 

Wilder's fought most of his last few fights at around 215-220, not 225.

Anyway, Usyk absolutely schools him and possibly KOs him late. Even if Wilder catches him with a good shot Usyk's chin and recovery abilities are good enough to keep him in the fight, and after a few rounds it becomes academic as Wilder wouldn't land a glove on him, at least not a fully leveraged one.

The Spilka fight is a really good indication of how this one pans out early doors. Usyk will make Wilder miss and punish him with counter shots and shots from odd angles while taking very little in return. Difference is, by the mid rounds Usyk will be in full cruise control mode while Wilder becomes a flailing chicken, at which point Wilder's chances drop to virtually nil.

For Wilder to win he'd need to do more than just hope to land a perfect punch (a difficult proposition against a man as mobile as Usyk). He'd need to keep hitting Usyk with short quick punches down the guard that disrupt his rhythm and open him up to bigger punches later on that Usyk wouldn't see coming, and frankly Wilder doesn't have the brain or the skillset to pull that off.

If Wilder had continued to improve on the disciplined fighter we saw in the first Stiverne fight I'd give him a much, much better chance here. But he's devolved since that fight, and is now little more than a one punch head hunter who's happy to lose rounds to land punches of his own. That tactic won't work against Usyk, who'll make Wilder pay for every sloppy mistake he makes and shut down his offence with speed, angles and workrate.

I don't really consider this a 50-50 fight at all.

 

Can't believe how close the poll is. Wilder gets stopped by Usyk in 8 rounds.

 

not sure wilder gets stopped but he is obviously a puppet champ and would get soundly silenced by a live prime elite.

 

This puny Usyk will outbox Deontay 11 rounds to 0 then get caught with a rabbit punch and a massive windmill in the last minute of the 12th round, Devastating bronze bomber by brutal KO.

 

Usyk still has a lot to prove at heavyweight, beating Bellew proves nothing in this regard. We need to see how he copes with facing such a tall opponent.

I think Usyk will have stylistic issues trying to outbox much taller super heavies, he isn't your typical inside pressure fighter and he isn't going to suddenly change styles now, he'll try and dart in and out and out box these bigger men.

He moves in and out well but his lack of head movement could see him caught coming in or when trying to get out. Usually a much shorter fighter has to be able to slip shots when coming in and that isn't Usyk. He has the footwork but not the upper body movement to pressure much bigger men and once inside, Usyk isn't your typical inside fighter, he will want to get in and out which keeps him on the outside more often than not which would suit a taller opponent.

But having said that Wilder maybe the one current top super heavy he can out box from range. His southpaw stance will take away Wilder's jab, we saw that vs Ortiz. Wilder despite having quick feet is pretty static, he plants his feet in a wide stance looking to counter the incoming fighter and that will allow Usyk to get in and out which the smaller Szpilka had some success with and Usyk moves far better than Szpilka. Ortiz lacked the footwork to get in and out on Wilder and so was more hesitant to pressure him, Uysk I think can definitely out box Wilder.

But Wilder of course has that crazy power and unorthodox style. If he can catch Usyk coming in or going out of range he can hurt him. Wilder disguises his counters much better than he used to as well, he can be quite sneaky at times with his shots. Though it's easy to not see that because so many of his other shots are so technically poor.

Right now I favour Wilder, he's the proven quantity at heavyweight but if Usyk looks as good as he has so far after a couple of fights at heavy, then I will likely change my mind because he has the tools to give Wilder all kinds of problems.

 

Has Wilder improved since that first Stiverne fight? No.

Is Usyk levels above Stiverne? Yes.


Usyk.

 

Usyk 118-110.

 

Interesting fight. To be honest I think all fights involving Usyk at heavyweight are going to be interesting, as he’s going to be the superior boxer. But we all know there’s more to the heavyweight division than just boxing skills.

 

I could see Usyk outboxing him every single round until he gets knocked out with an unexpected looping windmill punch.