Usyk or Byrd: who is the greater heavyweight?

These were his words about Joshua in 2018 - Wladimir Lewis and Joshua have all been dominant

And who could forget - "Joshua might be ahead of Lewis head to head but in overall accomplishments I think Lewis still has an edge although two or three more good wins could put Joshua ahead."

 

Actually Chisora just came back and beat the guy who many swore was the real #1 in the division being avoided by Fury, Joshua, and Wilder.

 

I was referring to before that.

 

Pulev was ranked no5
Povetkin no4
Parker no3
Where are Tua's equivalent wins?

 

Tua was in a stronger era but he did not beat the best of that era.
Unless you think Rahman and Maskaev were as good as Povetkin and Parker?

 

People need to look at the context of Byrd's win vs Vitali.

He had 7 days notice fighting in Vitali's backyard against a much larger opponent. Byrd was able to make Vitali miss a considerable amount of punches whilst landing over 40 percent of his own punches.

At the time of the stoppage only 8 punches separated Byrd & Vitali with Byrd landing at a much higher percentage. It was a very competitive fight despite the myth of people telling you Vitali was dominating which is nonsense.

I credit Byrd's defense for Vitali's shoulder injury and taking into account he had 7 days notice and being much smaller it's a good win IMO.

 

Completely agree. The fight was closer than what the scorecards indicated.
The thing that surprised me the most is that Byrd seemed to hurt Vitali with his shots.

 

He actually had Vitali backing up after the 5th round and totally neutralised his jab I don't think Byrd gets enough credit for the win.

How many other fighters on 7 days notice with a 6 inch height disadvantage 5 inch reach disadvantage with a 33 pound weight disadvantage could fight a very competitive fight vs Vitali ?

 

Yes, that's an underrated win of Byrd.

 

When you compare the number of ranked contenders they thought, there isn't as much in it as you might think.

When you look at the stage of their careers when he fought them, it is not as impressive as it sounds.

Hergovic was ranked #5 I think, so that counts for something.

It is also not too late for him to come back.

I can't dispute any of this, albeit the Wallin win was respectable.

 

Byrd was smaller than Usyk so he was even more disadvantaged fighting the super heavies. He also fought more total fights, the majority of which in the big boy division. Naturally I would expect him to have some more warts on his career than Usyk. Having said that I believe Usyk beats him head to head, as his legs and stamina are the perfect foil to Byrd's style. As far as top level wins go, I would give slight edge to Usyk and he doesn't have any prime losses or losses at all at this point. So he gets the edge. but Byrd is underrated.

 

Usyk. Come on.