Bigger win: Fury Wlad or Usyk AJ?

Fury beat an old champion that had been in decline beforehand, and who had been having major drama on the home front in a none-too impressive fashion. As we all know Fury ducked the rematch and ran for the hills. This despite being, as everybody knows ad nauseum, a '270lb unbeatable gypsy man' with a healthy size advantage. In the last round Wlad was giving Fury everything he could handle and it's clear that Wlad realised he needed to take the offensive to beat Fury.

Usyk came up from cruiser, with everybody proclaiming him too small, too weak and that he would need to knock AJ out to get a decision in the UK. Joshua had a large size advantage and the home advantage. Usyk gave him a decisive boxing lesson and there's no doubt as to who won it. Another round and AJ would have been taking a nap.

By any metric the win by Usyk over AJ is more impressive.

 

You ask me who’s had the better career so far I’ll say Usyk but if we’re talking about the better win then it has to be Fury..

In perspective Wlad previous 4 fights he sparked out Prime Povetkin(who fought at an elite level until this year), KO 5 Leapai (A guy who Joseph Parker UD 2 years ago), KO 5 a prime Pulev (A guy AJ just KO’d in 9 seven years later) and UD Jennings(Who still was fighting at a high level until recently)..

AJ in his last 4 fights KO’d an much older Povetkin, loss by TKO to Andy Ruiz, beat Andy Ruiz in the rematch by UD and KO’d a much older Pulev..

Wlad hadn’t lost in 11 years and was the unquestioned man in the division.. AJ was just recently KO’d and there was still plenty of speculation of who is the man the division.. Gotta call a spade a spade..

 

A minor correction but Klitschko decisioned Povetkin. Still, Povetkin was better at that time than he was against Joshua.

 

Didnt mean KO my wording could have been better but he dropped Povetkin multiple times albeit in the most boring way possible..

 

Okay. No harm, no foul.

 

I think it's pretty close and a compelling argument can be made either way, as evidenced by the results being almost neck and neck (29-27 in favour of Fury-Wlad) at time of writing.

I'm leaning slightly towards Usyk-Joshua but wouldn't argue too strenuously with anyone who disagreed. I think it's a bigger and more significant moment for the sport and a little more against the grain. Fury-Wlad, even though Fury was seen as a considerable underdog, was a bit more of a conventional passing of the torch moment and in retrospect shouldn't have been as big a surprise as it was. Wladimir was probably past his peak and hadn't looked all that great in his last outing, and Fury was quite unlike anyone he'd faced in a long time, perhaps ever.

On the other hand Usyk is only the third Cruiserweight to pick up a Heavyweight title and he's helped redefine the parameters and smash a few of the dominant clichés around the Heavyweight division now. We've got comfortable with this idea of a 'big three' in the division in the form of Fury, Joshua and Wilder over the past few years, and there's been an obsession with size coupled with a heavily-pushed narrative that in this age of the Super-Heavyweights the more conventionally-sized guys just can't compete. For the time being he's stood that on its head and I find that a more interesting and beneficial development for the sport than Fury-Wladimir.

Not to mention that Usyk-Joshua was definitely the better and more enjoyable contest.

 

Fury's win is more historically signifcant and on paper the better win.

The manner of Usyk's win is more impressive to me.

A case can be made for either.

 

Usyk beat a man who had just been battered by by Andy Rice Pudding Jr a couple of bouts ago.

Klitschko, although he is overrated, at least hadn't lost in a decade and is still a better boxer than Joshua. People claiming that Klitschko was "shot" are agenda-driven and were probably one of the people claiming that the Klitschko who battered Pudding Pulev only 18 months prior (who just got a title shot as a "top 10" boxer, Joshua fanboys preach) was the best version of Klitschko.

 

Usyk beat PRIME AJ.

 

Fury beating Wlad after a Decade of dominance in the Division is one of the biggest wins in Heavyweight history. I get it its UsykMania on ESB, but Fury had the better win.

 

I'd argue that the Ruiz defeat takes a bit of the shine off Usyk's victory to an extent. If Usyk had taken AJ's 0 that would have made things a bit different IMO, given the vulnerabilities he has shown since.

Obviously Wlad had been starched before, but he hadn't been outboxed (more outfoxed given the lack of leather!) in a long time when Fury won.

Both got a decision in a place they weren't expected to - so even stevens there.

 

Coming from a guy who has Usyk with crown poster ?

It's not who, It's WHEN.

 

Usyk/AJ.

Wlad was 39, Fury was the bigger man, AJ is in his prime and Usyk was the smaller man. Plus fighting AJ in the UK is much more intimidating than fighting Wlad in Germany,

 

Dude i lost an Avatar bet. your posts always confuse me.

 

It wasn't even 18 months prior; it was exactly 12 and against a far better version of Pulev, who was active, coming off dominant wins over Dimitrenko, Ustinov and Thompson rather than coming off a hard fight with Bogdan Dinu(!) and 13 months of inactivity. And at least Wlad had the good grace to demolish him rather than play silly sausages for 9 rounds.

Any other version of Wlad than the one AJ fought would have starched AJ; even the 41 year old, 17 months inactive, dethroned version almost did in 6. It was the first clear indication that AJ was a hypejob, the Ruiz fiascos should have settled it beyond dispute for all but the most braindead and now we've had additional confirmation, so that even they are conceding that Fury would smash him, Wilder would have a good chance of taking his head off etc.