It will be a good fight to bet on. I imagine A.J. will be a 3-1 or 4-1 favorite. Usyk almost put Chisora out at the end of the 7th. Usyk has superior movement to A.J. and is a craftier boxer. A.J. won't be able to deal with Usyk's slick southpaw style.
Considering AJ is better than even peak Chisora at virtually everything about 100 times over, besides perhaps taking a punch, I fail to see where the confidence comes from
Can’t see it Joshua knocks him out for me he is not the most elusive Usyk he doesn’t mind taking the odd shot , think Hearn wanted to avoid Usyk like the plague before Saturday now hes chirping up saying he wants to make it for the spring next year!
That's how I see it. If Joshua hits and hurts Usyk, which he will, I just don't see how he keeps Joshua off him. I see Usyk being extremely competitive right up until he gets caught with something big. AJ has plenty of glaring faults but, finishing a hurt opponent isn't usually one of them and he's a devastating counter/combination puncher.
Right now I'd bet on Joshua to beat him, but the more Usyk acclimatises to the weight the more dangerous he's going to become. Give him someone like Wilder or Parker to fight next and watch him switch it up a gear.
Yes , if Usyk can get him gassed he can definitely win. But he will have to take risks inside the connect range of AJ and thats where I think AJ will be better than Usyk. But then again Usyk has a great skill of getting out of range swiftly and missing the target can also cause AJ to deplete energy. Very intriguing and evenly matched fight on paper imo
I think it’s a mistake for Usyk to go for it next fight he needs to fight a couple more fights at the weight for me Parker would be a good test like the previous poster suggested
If Usyk weathers the storm his stamina and combinations stepping in and out of the pocket may be enough.
You’d have to favour Joshua given size, strength and experience at the weight but I think Usyk is far more talented. He also seems to raise his game to the opponent and adapt to their style. He’s more than capable of winning a UD against Joshua if judged fairly.
It's a tall order for Usyk but AJ is used to being the faster man in there and whilst Parker and Ruiz have fast hands, Usyk has fast hands and some of the fastest and best feet of any big man I've ever seen. He's as light and nimble on his feet as a lightweight and he has excellent skills, athleticism, chin, stamina, and movement and best believe if he can hurt Chisora badly in a real fight and hurt Allen in sparring who are both rock-chinned he can sure as hell hurt AJ when he sits down on his shots or puts a combination of hard ones together. Allen has sparred hundreds of rounds with AJ This content is protected Sure AJ is a huge powerful unit who is capable of sparking Usyk out if he catches him right, but Chisora 9.0 is hitting considerably harder these days since he's hooked up with Haye and is actually taking training seriously and doing all that grueling S&C work. He sparked Takam out cold, that's the same Takam who AJ could only get out of there on a controversial stoppage.
I think he's saying that if Usyk can badly hurt Chisora without really putting it on him full blast (he just didn't seem to push it that last bit he can), then he can absolutely knock AJ out who is comparatively goats cheese chinned. Solid enough to begin with but crumbles under pressure. If he can make AJ gas it's even worse for him. But I still favour AJ realisitcally due to the weight, height, reach and power advantage which is significant.
Power vs Skills. Usyk needs a good gameplan to fight AJ. He will have to figure out how to deal with AJ's power.
