What do you say? I think he is. Obviously there is the size difference. Usyk is 5 times the size of Pea, but his style resembles him. The slick, southpaw pure boxer with amazing skills and a high workrate. Also not afraid to get in the trenches either and throw some hard shots.
Usyk has a really unique style of his own for a guy his size and it's hard to see other fighters that are similar to him stylistically. Obviously you can see glimpses of Lomachenko since they're both trained by the same guy but still vastly different. Don't see much similarity to Usyk with Sweet Pea to be honest other than they're both southpaws. I actually see more of a resemblance to Luis Manuel Rodriguez for some reason. Not a southpaw but Rodriguez had that bouncy footwork, high workrate, slick defense, can fight in any distance, great pure boxing skills but also not afraid to be aggressive.
Mark Too Sharp Johnson would fit that line. He had a style that was similar to Whitaker, except he was more offensive minded with speed and power in both hands but didn't have the footwork of Sweet Pea. This content is protected This content is protected
His fight against Vic Darchinyan is a good start to watch. Probably the closest to a modern day Whitaker. Sad to see that he fell off the rails, seemed like he was never in the same spotlight after the loss to Mares and then having back to back losses later on. This content is protected