Bump this thread in 2029. Right now they'll tell you it's an American from the 70's who fought before the sport was globalized. That's fine. In a year or two they'll say it's Lennox Lewis who was one-punch KO'd twice then walked away from Vitali. That's alright too. In 5 years time when Usyk is retired, people will come around. The combination of ring IQ and athleticism that Usyk possesses has never existed at heavyweight.
How can you not have him In top 10 when he Is undisputed, gone through turmoil In his home country, become undisputed and beaten 2 of the best HWs In the last 10 years twice?
Fighting bums in a weak era means little, unless he loses little to no rounds He's a borderline great fighter, beating good fighters with size advantage Not a true great in my eyes. He actually went down in my estimation, thought he would stop Fury in 8
You can bump it in 2050 when we're all grandpa's for all I care Usyk is not the Heavyweight GOAT it's as simple as that for anyone with an ounce of knowledge on the history of the sport. We can give the man his due without being ridiculous with the hype because of recent bias.
He's terrific. And I rate him extremely highly. But more as an overall, elite great fighter (CW, P4P). He deserves huge props for what he's achieved at HW. But he doesn't have the longevity and depth of resume at the weight to be top 5, IMO. Probably not top 10 - and I do like him a lot.
Usyk is a true ATG but let’s be real he’s had what ten fights at Heavyweight how can that be superior to Ali with 60 fights against prime killers like Liston, Foreman, Frazier, Norton and Holmes Compare this line up to AJ, Fury, Dubois and erm Chisora
He's arguably already the GOAT he just beat a fellow future hall of famer for the second time who outweighed him by 50 pounds, Incredible fighter.
You've forgotten Witherspoon. In all seriousness, for me it boils down to a few things: manner of victory, situation surrounding the fight, path to undisputed. When we look at the manner of victory, we're looking at how dominant they were, their skillset, the eye test. There's stuff Usyk is doing in there (and his opponents too) that's lightyears beyond what old greats were doing. The sport has evolved and Usyk is that evolution. He hardly lost a round. His manner of victory, while it isn't KO's, is great. The situation surrounding his fights is being the away fighter, judges, refs, promotional power. Usyk had all of this working in tandem against him and persevered anyway. Winning while going uphill outside the ring means a lot in terms of greatness. The path to undisputed was always clear cut. This is the marking of a true great. Whoever gets me all the belts the fastest, put them in front of me. We hadn't seen this attitude since the Klitschko brothers. Usyk has fewer fights at HW, but who gives a s***? He has taken out everyone back to back.
I will be shocked. If you think people not from this era are going to have a 7-0 guy with 5 close wins as the HW GOAT you're delusional. He hasn't even fought a non British contender.