Someone posted this 2011 ring mag heavyweight top 10 in a reply under in a thread, where would they rank in today`s heavyweight division if they were the same age now that they were in 2011? Vitali Klitschko Alexander Povetkin Tomasz Adamek Eddie Chambers Alexander Dimitrenko Robert Helenius Denis Boytsov Ruslan Chagaev Chris Arreola Kubrat Pulev
all in their prime, only vitaly holds on to the belts, all the rest play hot potato with the straps in this current crop..
Damn. Didn't two of Joshua's last three wins come against two of those guys? Who will Joshua fight after beating Usyk in Usyk's last fight before retirement? Helenius in his last fight before he retires? Joshua's fans want it to still be 2017, when Joshua was all the rage. Joshua appears to want it to be 2011. Helenius, Dimitrenko, he'll take them all on.
Usyk would have beaten every fighter on that list, his fight v Vitali would have been interesting, the others would have got a slapping.
Usyk is the 10th best heavyweight right now, according to Ring. Frankly, it's a gift ranking for what he accomplished at Cruiserweight. He's done nothing at heavyweight at all. Joshua should wipe him out like Frazier wiped out Foster and Tyson wiped out Spinks. Otherwise, Joshua isn't what everyone thinks he is.
Those guys were light heavyweights. Usyk is a cruiserweight, and had he fought not too long ago he would've been a legitimate heavyweight.
Joe Frazier weighed 208. He outweighed Foster by 20 pounds. Mike Tyson weighed 218. Spinks weighed 212 and beat better guys at heavyweight than Usyk has. The weight differences will be more in the range of Frazier-Foster. Usyk is moving up a division. He will likely come in weighing more than Frazier and Tyson did. Joshua should outweigh him by 20 pounds at least. Unless Usyk got really fat like Spinks did. Regardless, Joshua is in his prime. The naturally bigger man. The defending champ. On his home field. With tens of the thousands of fans supporting him. On a card promoted by Matchroom. Usyk reached his zenith in the Cruiserweight tournament. He's looked fairly lackluster and has battled injuries since then. This is the first training camp he's had since he moved up where his fight wasn't postponed because he injured himself in training. It's the end of the road for Usyk. A Spinks-like ending, quick and easy, seems to be in the cards. Unless Joshua comes in totally flat. With that guy, you never know. But Joshua should walk right over him. Give the crowd who have been waiting years to see him something to cheer about. Score that big KO to try to reclaim some of that sizzle he lost in recent years. This is the light-punching, middle-aged, often injured former cruiserweight opponent to do it against. If he doesn't do it against Usyk, don't know who he can do it against. Hearn has provided another "name" opponent at the end of his career for Joshua to knock over. Eddie did his job. Now, Joshua just has to knock him over.
20lbs heavier, but also 20lbs slower. Usyk will have a speed advantage that both Foster and Spinks did not. AJ may hit harder, but you cant hit what you cant catch.
Can't hit? Dereck Chisora landed more power punches against Usyk than Usyk landed on him. And Chisora isn't exactly hard to hit. Chisora doesn't jab much. And that's all that Usyk did. He landed more jabs. That was the difference. Nothing else. Joshua has a fine jab. And he isn't exactly slow. I give Anthony Joshua a lot of crap but I like him. He's good for the division. I thought his KO of Pulev was a stellar KO. But his quit job against Ruiz is a problem. Like I said, Usyk shouldn't even be rated at heavyweight. He hasn't looked good. He hasn't beaten anyone remotely rated. Eddie gave Joshua the perfect opponent to look great against. Anthony Joshua just has to perform like the heavy favorite he is. Eddie Hearn gave him an old name to knock over. There isn't going to be anything coming back from Usyk but a jab. Just bowl him over. Send Usyk off into retirement. And move on.
Usyk is far bigger than Foster and Spinks were in those fights and his body is more defined than Spinks was, plus moving up from cruiser isn`t as big a jump as moving up from light heavy. Usyk has a longer reach than Spinks had and AJ doesn`t fight the way Frazier did.
There was no cruiserweight division when Foster fought Frazier. Foster weighed 188. Frazier only weighed 208. Spinks was actually a heavyweight champion when he fought Tyson who weighed 218 (six pound more than Tyson). There's no real difference between Foster fighting Frazier and cruiserweight moving up to fight a big heavyweight. That's why there's been 60 cruiserweight champions, and two made the jump to heavyweight champ. It's a big leap. Usyk isn't defined anymore. He's less defined. Like Spinks vs. Tyson. He looks like a skinny guy who drank a lot of beer.
I just looked it up: 2010 C: Wladimir Klitschko 1: Vitali Klitschko 2. David Haye 3. Alexander Povetkin 4. Tomasz Adamek 5. Ruslan Chagaev 6. Eddie Chambers 7. Denis Boytsov 8. Nikolay Valuev 9. Alexander Dimitrenko 10. Chris Arreola 2011 C: Wladimir Klitschko 1. Vitali Klitschko 2. Alexander Povetkin 3. Tomasz Adamek 4. Eddie Chambers 5. Alexander Dimitrenko 6. Robert Helenius 7. Denis Boytsov 8. Ruslan Chagaev 9. Chris Arreola 10. Kubrat Pulev
This is ridiculous. Usyk handled Chisora significantly easier than Parker and Whyte did and he's more skilled than both as well. Joshua having trouble with Usyk is to be expected. Usyk is a good fighter and never showed a suspect chin anyway. Besides Mike Tyson is more agressive than Joshua and twice as fast. This is just you pushing an agenda to downplay Usyk, simultaneously downplaying Joshua's resume. Clear as day
