Usyk is vacating all the belts!

No, no they won't, any more than anyone really cares about the other examples I named.

By the way, there is no blemish. He won the fight.

 

Lineal doesn't mean anything if you aren't fighting legit opp

 

Old George Foreman tried that crap

 

Gassiev has 3 quality wins at cruiserweight. There is very little depth. Certainly not enough for me to call him a great cruiserweight

 

What in the hell is depth to you? Lebedev is one of the greatest cruisers of all time. Wlodarczyk a little below that, and Dorticos a champion. These kinds of quality fighters don't grow on trees. Three first-rate fighters is depth.

And he has other contender-level wins like Cora and Schimmel.

You are talking some nonsense, here. Yeah, a 32 yea-old fighter in the middle of his career is not going to have 10-15 good wins, but now that he is a champion again, he's working on it.

Maybe that is your problem in a nutshell--you don't understand that you are commenting on guys whose careers are ongoing.

 

Would be pretty funny if Gassiev lost to Yoka, Wallin did it so it wouldn't be an upset

 

Exactly. Ive said he kind of ruined lineal

 

Some people will excuse Usyk for having an off-night against Rico, others won't. It's pretty bold making a universal assumption on everyone else's behalf.

I'm also not sure why you continue to hype Gassiev. He was a solid cruiserweight, but at heavyweight he lost to Wallin of all people. He's clearly not cut out for HW.

 

As I have already said, they will not give it any more weight than Holmes LOSING to a fighter coming up TWO weight classes, Tyson losing his last two to club fighters, etc.

Gassiev is healthy for the first time in years and making his move.

 

Which, again, is a bold assumption to make on everyone else's behalf. I tend to lean towards in agreement to you regarding their fight not being a massive blemish on his record because he 1. won it (even if there was controversy), and 2. dropped the belts afterwards acknowledging the need for the division to move on.

Personally, I think Rico is very talented. I like what I see and it will continue to show if he fights on, but many others will continue to see it as Usyk almost losing to a kickboxer he had no business fighting to begin with. It did not help that Usyk fought so infrequently in the build up and did not fight three of his mandatory opponents widely viewed to have earned their shots.

Gassiev beating up a 44 year old Pulev isn't exactly promising. IMO he'll struggle against most bigger heavyweights who aren't one foot in the retirement home, but happy to be proven wrong and will keep an eye out for it.

 

Depth is what Tyson and Holyfield have who beat 10 plus quality opponents at heavyweight.

There's a pretty hefty gap between them and someone like Gassiev.

 

He's in the middle of his career. What do you not understand about that? Three of the best cruisers is good depth.

And how many people have THAT kind of depth, to name ten good oppoents? Certainly not most of the guys that Tyson and Holyfield made their reputations from, except for the very old guys like Holmes. I personally did top ten surveys for most heavyweight champs, and even guys like Foreman have a hard time coming up with good top tens, so you are talking completely out of your ass to make that some kind of standard, here.

 

I respect his choice. Usyk cleared out the cruiserweight division and moved up a weight class to hand the best heavyweight of this generation his only two losses. He's 100% earned the right to retire and probably should've done so earlier. He is 39 after all. I was also critical of his choice to hold up the division, so I'm glad the belts are now vacant for the new blood to take. Wish him all the best.

 

The only controversy in that fight that should stand is the ref giving Rico 20 seconds of extra recovery.

 

No, the ref had to ensure the mouth guard was in place. The controversy was the fight being stopped after the bell rang.

It is what it is though