As a Pole, can't help to be excited about the opportunities Damian will have now. Which of the Top 15 HWs do you think he beats? To be honest, I would give him a big chance of outboxing Gassiev to become a title holder. But what about the others?
The highest ranked guys I think he'd beat I think are..shot Joshua, Hysa, Okolie, Riakporhe, Jalolov, Hunter, Yoka
There isn't a consensus "top 15" at the moment. More like a top 30 of guys that are all in some people's top 15. As of now Knyba strikes me as guy who will be ranked 9th or 10th for a very long time. He could be more than that but based on what we've seen that's where I think he is. I would agree he likely beats Gassiev. But Otto Wallin beat Gassiev. There's a lot of HW's with a good chance of beating Gassiev. As many as 40.
The HW division just looks like a mess, outside Usyk....none of them are untouchable. 90% of them are old and washed. The prospects many believed were the next greats.......aren't. Itauma got flattened, Torrez Jr got flattened and Jarrell Anderson got flattened. Jalolov Wilder Fury AJ Ruiz Miller are all washed. I mean the governing bodies are actually having to include guys like Riakporhe and Rico ffs....might even see Jake Paul in there before long.
I noticed him just a little before. I have a couple of posts about him in the heavyweight thread. I am glad he is doing so well
It might be a question of style matchup. I can imagine him beating hrgovic, but I am reasonably sure he loses against Itauma for example. Hrgovic is slow and has limited workrate and power. If he doesn't ko knyba he might lose. Of course he is more variable than knyba, but he has to do a good job outboxing him. Itauma on the other hand is super quick and deceptive and I don't think knyba can take too much punishment and Itauma would have a field day with him and stop him in a few rounds. Just because he would land constantly. I like how knyba is on his toes for longer than you would ecpect him to with his size and weight.