I agree. If he beats Ruiz we’ll get spiel for a month or 2 about who he’ll face. IBF and WBO will both call their mandatories. Hearn will then say IBF is the first one AJ won and he’d find that harder to relinquish than the WBO, but will happily fight Usyk after he fights Pulev. After that we then get another 4 months of who will AJ fight, Wilder, Fury, or Usyk. Before then fighting Dillion Whyte. Ruiz wins, he fights Wilder next and we don’t see the belts for some time.
His footwork is slow, but he will wait for Usyk to come to him and try to counter then as Usyk is throwing his own shots. Ruiz can't out box him over the long haul, but he does have decent power, so it may only take one well timed, hard counter to start the downfall.
Last night Usyk had an almost uber-amateur style. Darting raids, in out. In, scoring punches, then back out again. Sidestep, pivot, then repeat. As the Sky commentary laboured the point on, ratchet's up the pressure via superior cardio and evasiveness as the rounds go on, basically banking on the opponent gassing and becoming less mobile. Then lays the telling punches on. The major thing that stood out as mentioned was his footwork, both the positioning and speed. It's clearly the major asset he's capitalizing on with the big boys, to get him in scoring range then back out of trouble; as he doesn't appear to engage much on the inside or in lengthy exchanges. The top HW's could basically just ignore all the dancing around, keep at bay with jabs and tie him up or counter right him as he gets close. Witherspoon had some success with the latter last night and he's hardly the pinnacle of athleticism. He can and does get caught with counter-rights, but then he was still on his toes in the 6th, so he may just wear down slower, harder-hitting fighters. He would have to be completely on top of his game to fare with the big boys, as Witherspoon completely lacked a jab and was basically spent cardio wise from the about the middle of the 3rd.
Agree in heavyweight division especially it does only need one shot onto change a fight. I think with Usyks footwork he would be in and out an angles before Ruiz could set himself to through back. Ruiz is a very good inside combination puncher, I just think the two heavyweights who would take this strength away from him are Fury and Usykz as they wouldnt be their in the pocket to be hit.
Thouht he looked good. Footwork ,movement positioning and shot selection all good. Take away ring rust got a few good rounds in . Took a few unnecessary shots but never looked in trouble ,looked as if could step it up anytime and did . Easiest fight out of "big 4" would be ruiz just for size. . He doesnt need to Blast guys out. Fury is much bigger but has no power. But usyk is far better to watch imo
Based on what? He was getting caught by right counters by Witherspoon, who basically didn't have a jab. Do you have any idea of the attributes he'd be giving away. Reach, height, power, strength and weight to name but five.
He got stopped in his tracks and even made to take steps a few times from Witherspoon. I go by what I actually see, not what the commentators tell me to see.
He has hyper amateur in out footwork. In fact a hyper amateur style based on scoring punches than turn into hurtful punches when the opponent gases. He's a class operator, but still unproven in the grand scheme of things. He doesn't do inside fighting, and seems to rely a lot on scoring fast straight lefts when there is an opening then backing off.
Wilder or Fury or Joshua won't be covering up on the ropes waiting for one shot, and Uysk wouldn't open up on them anyway
Agreed which I why I think Fury Usyk would be an absolute stinker in entertainment terms. They'd both be playing perpetual chess.
Not seen fight yet but cant see him beaten the big guys. As good as he is....hes giving away too much before a fight even begins. Dont think people quite realise how hard it is fighting a guy a good bit naturally bigger/stronger than you. Even if his stamina is better pretty much keeping these guys off etc starts to ebb into the stamina....you need to put more than the opponent into everything. Eventually it wears you down. Add to that the heavier punches take their toll and you need to put more into a punch to have an effdct on the bigger guys. Theres a reason heavyweights dont all seem to mind a bit extra timber for weight or the cruiserweights dont all jump up to compete in the money heavyweight division. Not many get great success. Usyks a great fighter who,ll do well but he wont be unifying divisions etc. Be similar to david haye who actually had better attributes for the heavyweight division than usyk has....just a good bit less skilled. Had the power to make himself competetive tho.
