He barely makes weight in all his cruiserweight fights weighing 199.5. For a 6’3” he should be a natural heavyweight fighting heavyweights.
No, Usyk fought and unified one of the strongest Crusier divisions in history. The fighters he beat were fabulous H2H. So according to your logic, Usyk should've moved up to heavy and fought fat Journeymen and overmatched opponents for 15+ fights, like Joshua and other top Heavies? Hell, Wilder did it for near 40 and didn't even face top contenders as a Champion. Usyk is the only current Heavy who has the chance to become a legitimate ATG, and this is predicated on his Cruiserweight success. He is a very arguable Number 1 there, and him now winning the unified Heavy title is a historic feat.
He IS a natural cruiserweight. At 6'3" he's the same height as David Haye, Steve Cunningham and Johnny Nelson, and a bit shorter than Juan Carlos Gomez and Enzo Maccarenelli.
How did he pad his record? The dude beat the best in the division and collected all the belts. If he wanted to pad his record im sure he could have stayed at cruiser and milked it. Instead he moved up to heavyweight and collected another 3 belts in 1 shot.. get real.
Hmm, no.... just no. Usyk's CW record is, in my opinion, second to none in the history of the division when you consider the H2H prowess of the fighters he beat. He stayed there until the job was done and he cleaned up shop completely. No question marks over any of his wins, nothing - 100% legit road warrior!
He's never missed weight the first time of asking in his career and he weighed 207lbs and 208lbs in the ring against Hunter and Mchunu respectively and when he fought in the WSB at SHW (ie. where nothing was stopping him from coming in as high as he wanted if he was so big and was facing opponents who were way way bigger and heavier than him) the max he came in at was 213 and that was because he was facing a 277lb giant Usyk 211lbs - Nistor 233lbs Usyk 213lbs - Modugno 277lbs Usyk 210lbs - Majidov 235lbs Usyk 211lbs - Joyce 238lbs Usyk 209lbs - Brechlin 263lbs Usyk 208lbs - Fa 246lbs So he rehydrated 7-8lbs at CW in the pros and looked healthy on the scales and not remotely drained or gaunt The likes of Crawford was rehydrating 18lbs down at 135 Haney is rehydrating 20-24lbs according to Mauricio And David Benavidez about the same Twink who everyone says isn't a 135 pounder despite the fact he looks like death on the scales at 130, has missed weight the first or even second time of asking a whole bunch of times, actually did lose his world title on the scales after missing weight, and who missed weight by a whole pound for his 135 debut is rehydrating 11-12lbs ie. more than Usyk was a CW. Usyk weighed 215lbs for his HW debut and spent six months training like a lunatic to bulk up for AJ Usyk 211lbs - Nistor 233lbs Usyk 213lbs - Modugno 277lbs Usyk 210lbs - Majidov 235lbs Usyk 211lbs - Joyce 238lbs Usyk 209lbs - Brechlin 263lbs Usyk 208lbs - Fa 246lbs
Historically it is weak, that I agree on. I mean it is a very young division. The point is that Usyk fought top tier H2H fighters, became a debatable No 1. of all time in the class, then moved up and beat top class bigger men. This makes him a pound for pound fighter as well as a now top tier heavyweight. Usyk has almost no fluff on his resume (which is what the thread is about in the first place). It is extremely impressive. If Usyk had started at Heavy and built up slowly he'd have much more fluff, less quality and he wouldn't be a P4P fighter anymore.