Usyk's legs buckled from a huge shot I forget what round and he ate some big clean shots through the first 10 rounds and was stunned a few times. Acting like Rico was just hitting him with pitty patter all fight is living in an alternate reality.
Only the hardcores must recognise that Usyk carried him the same way Floyd clowned Mcgregor, got it it grew into a closer fight than it seemed I grant you that but in no way was Usyk messing around in there.
That's all he was landing? if only some of his shots landed clean its still better than no shots landing from usyk as he is covering up getting peppered. Your just biased towards your boxer.
29 seconds elapsed between Rico hitting the canvas and the ref waving the action back on but the controversy is all about him stopping the fight slightly after the bell when Rico was still badly hurt after all that time and completely defenceless as soon as Usyk set about him. Had the ref waved it back on even 5 seconds earlier Rico was 100% legit getting KO'd or the ref would've had to dive in before he did, let alone 7, 8, 9, 10-15 seconds earlier. That's the 2nd time in 4 fights Usyk has been robbed of a KO win or a more conclusive one because of the ref diving and giving this opponent an eon to recover when they were all but finished and for all of the Usyk has only fought 6 opponents at HW brigade it's happened against 1/3 of all his opponents at HW and vs giants who absolutely dwarfed him when he was 37-39 y/o, whilst giving away obscener size advantages than none of their current favs and most of their ATG HW favs have, ever will or ever came close to
I remember the shot you're thinking of. No, Usyk's legs didn't buckle. It was him being off balance while he was circling around Rico near the ropes. That idiot on the commentary team was squealing like a little girl and overselling the punch though. Yes, Rico did land some nice clean punches at times. AT TIMES. Most of his work was shoulder charging Usyk, throwing slappy punches, hitting Usyk with a zillion kidney shots, and just making it ugly. Acting like that's not true is living in an alternate reality. One guy got put face down ass up through the ropes and had his face all busted up. One guy just looked tired at the end.
On the money as usual Serge. I don't buy that Usyk was carrying Rico. Rico came in with the perfect game plan against Usyk who came in too heavy, with age also affecting his speed and mobility. In my view, Usyk was behind on the cards and got very lucky with that uppercut on the 11th, because without it he would have likely lost. It's time for him to hang them up. There's only so much you can tempt fate before it gets you.
If you play with your food, you look good doing it. Ergo if you don't look good, you're not playing with your food. Usyk didn't look good
Thanks. I think it was a combination of factors that combined at the right time and Rico was awkward as hell too but there's no way in hell he should've been able to match Usyk for speed with single shots if Usyk was even close to his prime and at a more suitable weight. Usyk was getting caught with huge flush bombs he would've seen coming and been able to evade easily even a few years ago, let alone in his prime. His speed and elusiveness has always caused these giants absolute fits and he was always 2 steps ahead of them but now his speed advantage has been getting less and less with each passing year and he's barely ahead of them at all It's funny because many of these same people will tell you favs of theirs declined a lot in terms of speed in their mid 30s when they still looked blazing fast and Usyk's decline in that department and speed related departments is glaring from the prime version
Uysk was matching him it is just that his work we pretty unspectacular. People got caught up in the narrative, and the awkward style with the ineffective aggression.
I agree. The Usyk from AJ 1 was a blur compared to what we saw with Rico. In saying that, I won't take credit away from Rico and his team. They're going to cause a lot of storm in the division if they stay, and I'm all here for it. Something I did notice was that Usyk's heart just didn't seem into it from his ring walk. He was even staring at the floor when the ref was giving instructions. He may be seriously considering retiring off the back of this one, or he'll push on for whatever he can for extra cash.
Night and day and that wasn't even prime Usyk at his optimum weight. It's the best version we saw at HW though Yeah, his team have been urging him to retire since at least Dubois II but in his own words boxing's a drug and his life and he just can't let go. I've often wondered to myself why someone in his team hasn't pulled him aside and told him he's slowed down a lot with age and size and that he needs to come in lighter to combat that not heavy but not only doesn't that seem to have happened he's been doing the complete opposite and coming heavier and heavier Impossible to dislike Rico and I'm an even bigger fan of him now but I'm not sure how he'll fair against other top power punching HWs his size or much closer to it because the impact his massive size advantage vs a much smaller Usyk had and him having the element of surprise and Usyk having no idea what to prepare for cannot be overstated
I thought that the fight was close. That was the worst version of Usyk I have seen he actually had a bit of a gut which I have never seen him with before. Rico did well he was extremely fit and tough used some dirty tactics to unsettle Usyk he is also a massive dude with an iron chin Usyk certainly underestimated him but still pulled it out of the fire I think he would've stopped Rico in the 12th. Lets not forget that Usyk is 39 years old. I also blame the commentary for their over the top glazing of Rico and Coopinger's card was a disgrace. It's almost like they were trying to make boxing look worse than it is. If there is a rematch I am pretty confident that Usyk would stop him again this time between rounds 7 and 10.