Bellew was given a round, the same way Usyk always gives people early rounds, then Usyk over from round 2 or 3. And Usyk is the polar opposite of Whyte & Takam so that's a moot point
Styles make fights and if there is any style that Usyk would hand pick to it would be a slow plodding fighter like Chisora. Sure Chisora might land one of those big overhand rights but apart from that he is going to get a bit of a pasting.
It’s an extreme comparison but McGregor took the first 3 rounds against Mayweather, when the reality was, Mayweather was just taking a good look at him and forcing him to work a lot harder than he’s accustomed to. Bellew did very well but I feel that Usyk was taking a look at him and like Mayweather with McGregor, was making Bellew work very hard whilst in first gear himself. Bellew was absolutely blowing by round 5, and the resulting knockout came from exhaustion. I think Usyk could do the same to Chisora. Chisora struggles with fighters that can fight off the backfoot. People highlight is recent successes but ignore how terrible he looked against Gashi whom whilst wasn’t willing to fight, was making Chisora look clumsy and out of ideas in how to cut off the ring.
Although I do have some doubts about Usyk as a heavy. (minor ones) Del Boy is who he would want to fight, come forward, but a bit of a plodder, with a lot of wide punches. I'm expecting Usyk to be happier with someone coming at him rather than in his last fight against someone who sat back and didn't offer many gaps to fire through. I do wonder though - a few people have said Usyk has been hit by bigger punches than Del Boy - I think that's debatable when you have seen him hammer Takem and Spillka into the middle of next week and both those guys will have weighed in around 220-240lbs How will Usyk handle the power of these bigger guys? Evander took it very well, Haye was very cautious against most heavys and especially against Wlad - which bracket will Usyk fall into. I think its a great fight if Usyk dominate's he will be seen as a legit threat to AJ, Fury etc if it's debatable they (be it fighters or promoters) may try and freeze him out of the belt situation for a bit and let age and an extra fight or two put some miles on the clock.
I get your point about how he takes a shot off a big heavyweight, but I’d add that he would react the same way any heavyweight would when hit with a sweet shot and that’s end up on bambi legs. A lot of them cruiserweights are just heavyweights with discipline. Ruiz is a cruiserweight...he’s at least 5-6 stone overweight. Hunter is a cruiser, Rivas could have easily have made the cruiserweight limit had he not piled on a big muscle mass. In fact, I would argue that most heavyweights around the 6 foot mark could with huge discipline make the cruiserweight limit for a weigh in. As usual I’m drifting off the point, but I think Usyk will do great at heavy.
Usyk isn’t small, the guy is a little over 6’3 and was fighting guys like Joe Joyce (6’6) and Junior Fa (6’5) as far back as 2013 in the WSB. Chisora is only 6’1 and big bad Dillian Whyte is only a gnats **** taller than Usyk at 6’4. It won’t be Usyk’s size that’s the problem, it’ll be the wear and tear of a long long career.
Ha, just posted about heights on the Whyte v Povetkin thread. I think Whyte is actually (unofficially) 6”2, which would make him smaller in height than Usyk.
Yeah, people are acting like Usyk is some fragile midget. I share the concern about his fitness though, he seems to be suffering bad injuries and that could be massive.
Bellew was a far more skilled boxer than Chisora. Bellew had excellent footwork, were as Chisora moves like a postman.
To be fair it'll never be height that makes the difference. You can be six foot one/two/three but that won't make as much difference as your opponent being fourteen stone v seventeen/eighteen/nineteen stone. They're weight classes after all, not height classes.
Out of the 3 heavyweight fights recently made for here, this is the one stylistically I’m looking forward to most. While it lasts it will be interesting. Chisora will be stopped on his feet around 5-7 I think. He won’t be able to see he’ll have been hit that much.
That is true, I just found it interesting that a fighter would add a couple of inches to his height. Usyk isn’t 14 stone though, he just had the discipline to boil himself down to that weight, I think his weight is somewhere similar to Povetkin’s and Wilder’s more natural weights, around the 15 1/2 stone mark. That said, you’re right, it’s the weight that makes the difference.
