I do favour Usyk. I think he can steer clear of the bombs and maybe score a late stoppage. It only takes one, so it isn’t a massively confident pick. I don’t read a lot into the Chisora fight, as I thought it was a tough fight for Usyk, as Chisora is for most, and I thought Usyk handled it well. AJ is a tougher test, but Usyk is special, and can adapt. He will have worked on his strength and I assume his sparring will have been tailored to AJ. It’s a great match up, one of the most intriguing heavyweight battles for quite some time.
The only reason he spoke out is because it’s part of his rebranding since his return. Books, appearances, crappy social media sponsorship posts etc He’s become everything he used to criticise Joshua for.
It's definitely a very intriguing fight. Think I'll say Joshua points decision, possibly a late stoppage. I think it'll be fairly cagey most of the fight, with both having having short moments of success to influence the judges and I can see Joshua winning rounds with more eye-catching work being the bigger guy landing the bigger punches and seeing Usyk getting physically moved and rocked by the punches. Think it'll go the distance, but maybe a stoppage rounds 11-12 with a late barrage from Joshua like in the Klitschko fight.
i pretty much agree with this assessment. I was really surprised at the forum and general social media reaction to the Chisora fight. People citing that as some sort of evidence that Usyk can’t handle HWs. I thought it demonstrated the total opposite.
No, it wasn't. It was a version who had spent 18+ months out of the ring, coming off the loss, fighting in what is effectively Joshua's home arena, 41 years old... Just because he adopted more eye-friendly tactics does not mean it was a better version. He was lunging in like a drunken sailor with lead left hooks out of desperation only about 4 or 5 rounds in, totally gassing. Fury beat the considerably better version, in more impressive fashion, in unfavourable circumstances. Haha. Comparing Fury and Joshua to Ronaldo and Messi? Is this a wind up? Joshua has had one 50-50 in his entire career and he's nearly 32 and was recently absolutely battered by a tiny little Mexican bloke who had a tougher time battling obesity than Joshua. No amount of Pudding Pulev's, Paint Dry Parker's, Tickling Takam's, ***** Tits Breazeale's etc. can make up for such an embarrassing performance and exposure. Good one. And his loss against Andy Rice Pudding Jr is the equivalent of England getting knocked out of Euro 2016 by Iceland, or worse. A stinker.
Really tough one to call this. Can't really settle on a firm prediction because there are so many ways I can see it playing out. I put a fiver on Usyk because it's a better return than an AJ win Are we thinking that if it goes the distance it's favouring Usyk more, or AJ?
There’s no way in a million years they will give Usyk the decision, even if he won 12 rounds. Are they really going to hand over the belts from the cash cow and stop the Fury/Joshua mega fight happening? No chance, I have this fight 60/40 in Usyks favour (if everything was fair) but I would be shocked if he got the decision, a late stoppage is his chance
Re - the posts above - I really hope the decision isnt rigged - and I feel its only fair to both fighters who have trained so hard for it to allow the fight to happen before making such assumptions I fear that if AJ wins a close fight legit then a lot of people will claim rigged anyway - he really does seem to engender a lot of saltiness Also I hope that whoever wins gets the credit they deserve. Its a great fight with two clashing styles and what we assume will be two very differing skill sets. We dont know how either is going to fight - will Usyk pressure? Will AJ try box and move? Ring size ? No idea which size would suit either so I think we can dispose of any theories re that surely? The claims Usyk is washed up (mainly by you Surrix) already that have been voiced I really dont understand tbh. He has chosen to come up to HW and is fighting AJ virtually straight away after fast tracking him to mandatory - you can hardly blame AJ for not fighting him earlier ?! For me he is a really skilled fighter with excellent feet and great angles - he should pose AJ some real problems. I think AJ can come through though we will see Re decisions I will be the first to complain if the margin should be wide one way and its called the wrong way but fingers firmly crossed There have been a lot of decisions recently that really scream fix and it is really quite depressing!
It's a Matchroom show with its biggest cash cow, of course there's no way Usyk will get a decision. False diplomacy is just pointless.
