Rico verhoeven vs prime muhammad Ali

Agree totally. Tho aging there's a few weaknesses showing. As you allude, taking on a load of differing opponents that bring forth varying intangibles is the way to prove yourself. The more you put yourself on the line, the more chance little chinks show themselves. Holmes and Lewis fought and beat a diversified bunch, as did Ali and Louis obviously.

As you say, depth depth depth. It's a great point.

 

I even think the '#1 guy of the era' tag is a tad problematic. Not that it isn't valid, but that, in my opinion, it relies on him having 'outlasted' Fury in terms of Ring Age.

Neither Joshua nor Usyk faced Wilder. Fury did – three times – and he left parts of himself in the ring on each occasion.

I do think Usyk's preservation (which is as much to his credit as it is down to a more lightly scheduled pro career) and the timing of the unification bout with Fury, have been fortunate (or fortuitous) aspects of his heavyweight tenure.

 

That's not even mentioning how the knowledge of dosing PEDs for fighters has massively increased within the last 2 decades. Usyk was raised in the Eastern bloc system where doping was basically a given. Nowadays micro-dosing roids for recovery and longevity is the norm among athletes. Even with that Usyk barely fights once per year despite highly likely being on a test+HGH+EPO stack. Imagine him in the older eras with no substance dosing and regular defences being expected? His body likely totally breaks down by early 30s given his style. Not enough credit is given to the NON ROIDED high activity level of past ATGs, honestly.

 

That's a fantastic point truth be told.

 

In fairness to Usyk, Fury said he would not fight Usyk even before the first Usyk-Joshua fight. Fury's argument was that because Usyk was Ukranian and didn't speak good english, there was no reason for them to fight.

I don't think Fury's fights vs Wilder took as much out of him as some think. He had 2 knockdowns in the first fight but came back very well in the second and looked at his best.

In the 3rd fight, he showed up out of shape and that was his own fault. Yes, he did take some heavy punishment in the third fight but that was largely avoidable if he bothered to take it serious.

I think Usyk would have always beaten Fury. Fury struggled vs Cunningham early in his career and had to use dirty tactics to win. And he struggled vs the southpaw Wallin.

I think Usyk is just a bad match up for Fury and Fury knew it. Which is why Fury was never interested in the fight.

 

God preserve me!

 

Verhoeven wins by brutal KO. A fighter from the 1960s is not going to beat a modern day 260lb jacked-up elite fighter who has 50 more lbs of muscle.

 

LOL. Even Quarry would smoke basic pillowfisted Rico.

 

I get that, but it doesn't change what actually transpired in terms of the timing.

I disagree. He was on borrowed time anyway, given his two-to-three-year hiatus of bad living and mental health issues.

Yes, he made a successful comeback, but he'd left his prime behind him and three fights with Wilder only accelerated his decline.

Again, whatever the reason... ...it happened.

I tend not to think of fights that a boxer won by KO and comfortably on the cards, respectively, as 'struggles'. Either way, the fights themselves do not represent a pattern in my view.

Usyk might well be a bad match-up for Fury but a bad match-up does not equate to a no-win situation.

So, IMO, Fury could have beaten Usyk at another point in time. But when they actually met, he didn't have the steam left to successfully take on that kind of a better preserved talent. And that's the only point I was making, really.

Usyk did what he had to in the circumstances as they were, and the record reflects that.