Inside Information On The Hectic Situation Currently Surrounding Usyk & His Team.

Sad situation for a great fighter.

 

Fascinating. Might explain a lot.

Meantime it seems Rico told Ariel Helwani today he plans to file an appeal.

Would this even be a thing had the WBC and (sort of) WBA not sanctioned this fight and given it their imprimatur -- rather than treat it more properly as an exhibition?

Or maybe Usyk's new "team" sees greater $$ in a Rico rematch than in the Kabayel fight that boxing fans want?

Whoever fights Usyk next, it would be the classiest of acts were that fighter to dedicate a portion (of whatever size) of their payday to the Ukrainian cause.... IMHO....

 

Careful, Icarus

 

Curious as to when exactly his team changed. It could be significant if it happened prior to Dubois 2.

The last line reminds of when someone from his team said that he was suffering from "unseen" or "non visible" injuries or whatever he called it after that fight, and unless it was code for mental health issues, it wouldn't make sense to come from that fight as he barely got tagged and those "injuries" lasted months. If the team change happened prior to Dubois 2, it could be possible that Usyk's injures come from training.

If so then yeah, his team is ****ing stupid. And he's being stupid if he's just accepting of it. He should know better, he's a pro athlete and a grown ass man. Either retire or get yourself a proper team behind you, instead of AJ's coach just because you like the idea of replicating the Rocky-Apollo beach run irl.

The guy definitely sounds like he's trying too hard to excuse Usyk though. He was on fire 10 months ago and now everything is shot all of a sudden. If he's really injuring himself that badly in training or if he aged overnight, then it should show itself in his next fight. Guess we'll see.

 

Pretty difficult to argue this, the magic footwork was no more and a loss was highly likely, lady luck made a late appearance.

 

Damn. If that's true then I feel bad about rubbishing Usyk for taking the Rico fight. Sounds like he's surrounded by leeches.

 

If he wants to keep fighting, there's no point surrounding himself with blokes who think he should be retired. Their negativity isn't what's required to get any remaining juice out of the orange. He's not a young man & if he keeps going someone will knock him off. In saying that, he'd probably start favourite against anyone out there so he may well have two or three successful title defences left in him. Boxing is what makes him special so you can understand him not wanting to give it away. As a very well known fighter once said, 'you finish at the finish line'. Usyk isn't there yet. Also, what the sanctioning bodies want him to do at this point is largely irrelevant. He's the Heavyweight Champion of the World (the real one) until someone beats him in the ring or he elects to retire (permanently). Beware of pretenders & cheap imitations.

 

That was a hard read. Sad to hear. He's been trending downward for a while now, but the Dubois rematch was the first time I thought his legs truly looked "off" - like his knees were stiff and didn't have much bounce in them. His punches have lacked the snap they used to as a result IMO. Obviously it was even worse this past weekend with the natural aging and added weight.

It's interesting to read about the more flat footed strategy to sit down and focus on power more. I've suspected that's what they've been going for. And while it would put him in more harm's way, it's probably the best strategy against somebody like Kabayel at this point if his legs aren't responding. Make him truly feel some power and think twice about sitting down on those body shot combinations, because he's open for counters and shots up the middle.

All that said, I wish he'd just hang it up and sail into the Hall of Fame first ballot. No need to pick up a loss and more punishment to somebody he would have comfortably beaten just a couple years ago.

 

I always felt like Usyk never really physically adapted well to heavyweight anyway. That sounds strange to say considering he's undefeated in that weight class, and he beat three of the top dogs twice. But I felt like he was forcing himself to keep on that extra weight, and it just slowed him down. He was still very slick and could create great angles to attack. He was still masterful in controlling his opponent's lead hand and feinting them into paralysis. He did a fantastic job of that against Joshua in their first fight. And maybe he needed that extra size for some added durability and strength. But he definitely was never a natural heavyweight in my mind. Holyfield was smaller, but his body adapted a lot better to his added weight in my opinion.

 

To me the shock was the loss of his main advantage, the magic feet, and all of the connotations that brought in both defense and attack. The question for me now is, was it due to age or fitness?

 

I don't doubt this is true, but how much do you know about the source? It's weird to see some broken English (hinting at a Ukrainian) but then also see a deeply british word like "niggles" that a non-native wouldn't know.

Either way, Usyk is a chunko. Terrible camp, no doubt about it.

 

He needs to retire ASAP. At most maybe a rematch and last payday with Rico and then hang up the gloves.

If he really is as declined as he was vs Rico, he should not risk his legacy vs a Kabayel or Itauma.