Could M. Spinks or Floyd Patterson win titles in today's cruiser division

Similar to how Usyk Gassiev played out. I don't see Jirov doing anything to beat Usyk.

 

Below we have The Ring's end-of-year rankings of the light heavyweights during the 40s. You honestly feel, that most of these guys would "flatten" Usyk?

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings:_Light_Heavyweight--1940s

 

Yes. Conn, Maxim, Bivins, Moore and other light heavyweights had power, were very experienced, and could effectively use combinations.

I like Usyk, but he's the undisputed champ in one of the weakest divisions I've ever seen. If Usyk goes on and becomes Undisputed Heavyweight champ I'll change my mind, but besides Usyk himself cruiserweight is full of mediocre fighters. I expected him to easily stop an inactive novice like Hunter and Gassiev, who is very easy to hit and lacks heart, but he went the distance with both.

Gassiev - Decent puncher, but is slow, inexperienced, and one dimensional. Very sloppy defense and barely won against a shot Lebdev. Struggled with Dorticos who would've been toyed with.

Briedis - struggled with Mike Perez, who was a heavyweight reject that Conn would use for target practice before stopping him.

Michael Hunter - Usyk was dropping rounds to Hunter, who is a complete novice and isn't even half the fighter his father was. Hunter has terrible timing and no power, but was still landing on Usyk. Hunter also had been out the ring for almost a year at the time. Charles would chew up and spit out a novice like Hunter. Moore regularly crushed superior fighters to Hunter with ease.

Mchunu - An inexperienced and sloppy southpaw with no ring IQ. He was dumb enough to keep using the shoulder roll against the much taller Usyk. Has poor balance and very messy footwork. Maxim would make really easy work of Mchunu.

 

Conn and Maxim had power and would flatten Usyk? I mean... Conn and Maxim??? Are you being serious?

 

Show me even one good fighter that Usyk has beat or even 1 fighter that is half the combination puncher either Conn or Maxim was. Bellew would easily be the best fighter on Usyk's resume, which says a lot about Usyk's competition at cruiserweight.

Michael Hunter 12 fights and 9 months inactivity

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This kid Hunter is green as grass and can barely put an effective combo together and took at least 4 rounds off Usyk. Hunter also can't punch. Maxim or Conn would destroy Hunter with ease. Conn stopped Pastor, who was very experienced and beat plenty of fighters just as skilled as Usyk himself and some even more skilled.

Briedis had 23 fights and was better and more experienced than Hunter, but still very green compared to Maximm or Conn.

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Briedis is slow as molasses compared to Maxim or Conn and lacks any cleverness. He did fire combos from time to time, which troubled Usyk early on, but never switched his combos up and became predictable. I also never see Briedis once use the uppercut to the body when he's on the inside to setup his combo's, which Conn was a master at doing. Usyk's was wide open to the uppercut to the body all night and Briedis never exploited the opputernity, which is a sign of his limited IQ and inexperience.

Gassiev had 26 fights against very weak competition besides a Lebdev, who was old, Gassiev also didn't have much amateur experience.

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Gassiev is even slower than Briedis and can't cut off the ring. He also throws one punch at a time. Gassiev is also stubborn like Kovalev and doesn't listen to instructions. The one time he listened and threw a combination he landed on Usyk, but went back to throwing over telegraphed punches. Gassiev is another inexperienced novice that Conn or Maxim would of toyed with before stopping him. I was shocked that Usyk didn't get the stoppage on Gassiev, who would be fodder against against any top 10 heavyweight. Bellew would've knocked this kid silly.

 

So I guess, you don't want to answer my simple question: Do you seriously think Conn and Maxim would stop Usyk?

 

Usyk is not a great boxer, he's decent, but running around doesn't make you a boxer. He's a fast, athletic, tough guy. He reminds me of Amir Khan with a chin.

 

That's an interesting statement. Good luck with that.

 

Of course! The IBU title , for example, is currently vacant!

 

I like Conn. He was one of the first technicians and laid the groundwork for a lot of subsequent fighters. But like a lot of guys from that era he was still a product of his times and possessed many of the same bad habits that fighters from that era had, namely a tendency to lunge in, a propensity for wailing with his punches, squared up feet in combinations, and a general lack of polish.

Maxim was similar, though I consider him a lesser technician to Conn.

Neither man would stop Usyk of course.

 

I appreciate the effort you've put into this post, but I can't say I agree with almost any of the observations you draw from the footage. Your point about Hunter is an interesting one though. I'm not sure why Usyk dropped rounds against Hunter. Maybe he was nursing an injury, maybe he was having trouble timing Hunter, maybe he just wanted to play it safe. I don't know, but everyone is entitled to an off night here and there. Usyk's put up enough performances against top fighters in the division to let that one slip, I think.

Your observations of Briedis and Gassiev are a bit odd, to be honest. Neither man is slow, although Gassiev does tend to be a bit flat footed and passive at times. Briedis is very explosive, and a good combination puncher in his own right. He also does throw uppercuts to the body, and showed it against Usyk (look at 0:47 of their HL vid for a great example). So does Gassiev, and actually had a lot of success against Usyk until Usyk turned it up and shut him out. Usyk does show some vulnerabilities to the body, but they're usually from single, well-timed counter shots than any sustained attack. He doesn't stay still long enough to let himself get hit by more than one at a time.

I'm interested in your justification for your high opinion of Bellew. Bellew's better than many gave him credit for, I'll grant you, but beaten on the corpse of David Haye shouldn't put you head and shoulders above the best of the rest in the division. What has he done in his time at CW that leads you to think he'd be, by far, Usyk's best opponent?

 

Gassiev is extremely slow. However, I did say Briedis was slow compared to Conn or Maxim, which he is. Also, good eye. Your correct that Briedis did use the uppercut to the body at 47 seconds, but he didn't follow it up with a good combination, which is what I mean by Briedis being inexperienced. Briedis also should've rotated more of his weight into that uppercut. I can see why I didn't remember it, since Briedis didn't use the uppercut effectively.

Bellew unlike Usyk's opponents has faced elite competition before at 175 and in my opinion is a better puncher and combination puncher than either Gassiev or Briedis and also has better defense than both as well. Also, I wouldn't go so far as to call David Haye a corpse. Haye obviously wasn't prime, but still had power and was still explosive. Almost everyone thought Haye was going to run over Bellew at the time, but I knew Bellew was all wrong for Haye. Haye is still dangerous to opponents that aren't movers and aren't effective punchers. Bellew's upper body and head movement is what was wearing the older Haye down and Bellew's hand speed along with his combinations are eventually what took Haye out. Besides Wilder, Joshua, T. Fury, Ortiz, and Povetkin I think Bellew is better than anyone else in the current heavyweight division.

Hopefully the Bellew-Usyk fight takes place, since Bellew was the real #2 cruiserweight all along.

 

I think you're confusing Gassiev's passivity for slowness. He isn't slow at all compared to someone like, say, Baer or Simon or Galento. His main problems, as I see them, are a tendency to box out of a shell without creating openings for himself, much like Arthur Abraham. That's a problem of mindset rather than any physical limitations, however. He's one of those guys who could stagnate if he doesn't introduce new dimensions into his game. His jab is virtually non-existent.

Briedis is a little slower compared to top LHWs, but it's really not a huge gulf in speed, and he has a lot of jerky jerky explosive movement to draw on to catch guys out, plus legitimate fight ending power. His inability to capitalise on bodywork was mainly due to Usyk not giving him the opportunity to do so rather than lack of experience. He did well to take his chances when he could. It just wasn't enough on the night.

Bellew, like I said, is better than many initially gave him credit for, but his level at CW still remains to be seen. He simply hasn't shown me enough to warrant putting him at a number 2 spot above proven CWs like Gassiev and Briedis. That could change, however, depending on future performances.