Notable cruiserweight wins: - Upset unified cruiserweight titlist, former LHW Lebedev by 12 round SD, who'd previously lost in a similar manner to Huck and been KO'd by an age 41 G. Jones (who failed a drug test post-fight) - KO'd former 2x cruiser titlist 53-3-1 Wlodarczyk inside 8 minutes, no one else has stopped him in 71 pro fights - KO'd future cruiser titlist 22-0 Dorticos, the only fighter to do so in 30 pro fights, though Briedis outboxed Dorticos more comprehensively At the peak of his hype, Gassiev was one of the most overrated boxers on this forum, maybe the most. 31-6 said Gassiev would beat Wilder in February 2018. After his shut out loss to Usyk, Gassiev moved up to heavyweight but went awol for over 5 years, fighting journeymen at a rate of less than one per year. Still only 29 with no more than 14 years in the sport, Gassiev entered as favourite in his first heavyweight step up against fringe contender Wallin but lost a close 12 round decision. Wallin would go on to quit after 5 rounds against Joshua and be dominated over 12 rounds by a 41 year old Chisora, both of whom had given Usyk much more competitive fights than Gassiev did. As it stands, Gassiev's best win at heavyweight is his 5th round KO of 18-0 Kem Ljungquist, who from what I can see could fairly be described as a poor man's Wallin. Among non-Usyk cruiserweights in the last 10 years, I think Gassiev is worse than Briedis, Opetaia and Hunter but he may be the best of the rest.
One dimensional fighter with a hell of a dimension, don’t know why but he fell off a cliff after moving up to HW despite not even being that small.
He was smaller than he was billed, barely over 6 foot flat in reality, with a 76 inch reach. He was also 216 lbs against Wallin, training for more speed I guess. He doesn't have great speed, world class skills or even probably the chin to succeed at HW. He's got power but it didn't translate well against Wallin. I think he suffered motivation-wise after the Usyk schooling.
In short - a strong contender at CW, but a weak gatekeeper at HW. A good example of someone unlike the likes of Usyk, Haye, Holyfield that did not translate well at all from CW to HW.
Looks basic as hell to me. No jab just swinging hooks. Of course he is pumped up as a great fighter because Usyk beat him. Cruiser is just awful skill wise.
Haye had the benefit of being promoted in Britain and heavily pushed. The manner he beat Chisora was impressive but I think many cruiserweights could have also outboxed Valuev, perhaps more comfortably than Haye (Chagaev did for instance). He didn't do anything at HW aside from that. Schooled by Wlad, ducked Fury. Even though he won a title, it flatters Haye to be mentioned in the company of Holyfield and Usyk, who did orders of magnitude more at HW and fared much better at cruiser too (Haye never became undisputed, ducked Cunningham for said fight, got stopped by 40+ Carl Thompson).
Gassiev isn't an especially skillful cruiser. Emanuel Steward charge Isiah Thomas lost every round to Hunter and Noel Gevor over 10 but was up on the cards after 3 rounds when Gassiev hit him after the bell for a NC. He has major problems against movers. As it stands I rate Gassiev as Usyk's 10th best opponent beaten.
Gassiev was a BEAST with a capital B at Cruiserweight. And reigned as unified champ in the strongest ever Cruiserweight era, 2nd only to the Greatest ever Cruiserweight Usyk. You only have to watch his performances against Dorticos, Lebedev, Wlodarczyk, and the epic KO against Shimmel, to see that the hype was justified, he was an outstanding Cruiserweight with unreal power. Going into the Usyk fight everyone including the bookmakers had it as a 50/50 fight. You can understand why people were excited to see him at Heavyweight. I don't know what happened, but he's a shell of himself at Heavyweight. Maybe it's all the injury problems he's had, and the inactivity, or being to small for heavyweight, or mentally/confidence wise he's not the same fighter. His speed and ferociousness and everything has regressed. It's a complete shell of the prime beastly Gassiev at cruiserweight.
Completely agree that Haye doesn't deserve to be in the same bracket as Usyk or Holyfield. Although, Haye was still a very good fighter that had both a successful CW and HW career. Whereas, Gassiev has done f*** all in the HWs so far.
He was more than a 'strong contender' He unified half the world titles there. Seems like you have the agenda. You obviously didn't see him at Cruiserweight, and didn't watch that super strong Cruiserweight era. (or you are trolling)
Briedis was certainly better: lost 7-5 to Usyk rather than 12-0. He was a cruiser champion over a much longer period (2017-2022 vs 2016-2018), a Ring/lineal cruiser champ and even his best HW win/performance (Charr) was a lot more impressive than Gassiev's. Hunter also had a significantly better loss to Usyk and moved up to HW before the WBSS. His HW resume is far better than Gassiev's: undefeated Bakole, undefeated Kuzmin, Povetkin draw. It's crazy that Usyk-Gassiev was considered 50-50 when Gassiev scraped by a 5'10, 71 inch reach former LHW southpaw in 37 year old Lebedev. Gassiev was also overrated when he fought Wallin, something like a 2/5 favourite. I don't think he was a shell of himself when he fought Wallin for instance. Wallin isn't as good as Lebedev P4P but he's 5-6 inches taller, 35 lbs or so heavier in the ring. He struggled with the style and couldn't overcome the size given his limitations. I'd like to see him fight a HW who will trade with him.
Gassiev was an absolute monster but he’s not the type of fighter that would do well moving up in weight. He was an extremely strong brutal fighter but wasn’t fast and explosive. If you’re going to give up a size advantage you need a speed advantage. I will say this Gassiev at his peak was better than Madrimov.