If Bud has a dominating performance Saturday, he’s number 1 p4p and it’s not necessarily close too

He's number 1.

 

Except the Ring does as it please when it comes to their ratings, sneaking in Jared Anderson into the heavyweight top 10 because he is the great American hope, keeping the likes of Whyte, Parker, and Ortiz in their top ten based on merit of another millenium; or as far as P4P goes: (which I would love to see systematized and explained with something else than cryptic "recent achievements" because as much as I love Lomachenko he clearly does not adhere to such rules, remaining there mostly based off the legendary strength of his past merit) keeping every hot new USA fighter like Lopez, Haney (taking belts off of Jim Braddock of the 135 in Kambosos) or the vanqisher of Ryan Garcia and Isaac Cruz--Tank Davis, above the likes of Estrada and Ioka (one just finished a triology with Roman Gonzales, the other rematched Nietes and pretty much retired Franco in a clinic.) Similarly when Bud entered the annual ratings at 2015 (#6) he has been hugging the top spots (#5, #2, #2, #4 and probably between #2-4 in betweeen 2021-2023) despite building relatively shabby resume crowned only by being the undisputed at 140. Conversly Usyk was ranked #4 in 2018 when he was done ripping apart every important man in his division (Briedis, Gassiev, Bellew, having finished Hunter, Głowacki, Huck a year or so ago.) The move to heavyweight, more colossal and historic than being two division champion in every possible way, only finally got him the number one spot momentarily taken away when Inoue unified the 118.

To justify a lot of the Ring's standings you need the memory span of a goldfish alternating with intellectual capacity of a Koala.

Usyk won the Joshua rematch. That's the result. The scoring if anything is display of how difficult was for Usyk to get a fair shake against a literal 20+lbs giant, who was preparing and making adjustments specifically for the fight, while Usyk had to adapt, anylyze, and overcome on the fly. Plus, he was literally drafted. During a war. In his homeland. Further down the line you have historic unification bout being held up by Tyson Fury with ridiculous demands. Usyk's most noteworthy inactivity was caused by outside factor, and to be honest even when he fought once a year it was usually when he moved up in weight in what would be equivalent of Crawford leaping to 168 and had to challenge human tanks.

 

Usyk has fought only ONE guy rated in the 10 of a division since 2018. It’s the heavyweight division for goodness sakes, why are we giving credit for weight disparity, should we give Wilder extra credit for weighing 20 pounds less than his opponents too? Let’s not pretend like Joshua hadn’t lost before either, he wasn’t even number 1 at HW when Usyk beat him and they were close fights.

 

Wilder is a 6'7 career heavyweight with all-time great athleticism and punch even for the weight. Him not bulking up beyond what offered him greatest possible speed (215-225) was only natural as he possessed no other triumph card. Granted, he is more of a bridgerweight compared to the superheavies.

Usyk is a 6'2 career cruiser, though by no means a small man. Still, him coming at 220 is due to neccessity of being able to somewhat affect and hold off the bigger guys, not keeping himself lean to retain his ballistic properties like Wilder.

Yes, the leap in weight ought to be treated with much more respect than say 118 to 122 or 140 to 147. That's not even a question. Counting every kilogram against the slobs like Andy Ruiz or Jarrell Miller is not the way, but the increase in frame, chin, and cracking capabilities is much more substantial. There is a reason cases like Charles, Tunney, or Conn are so high praised for how they presented themselves at heavyweight (granted in the 15 rounds and 190 limit.) By the time Bob Foster challenged Frazier, a successful leap from 175 to heavyweight was kind of a myth, which translates to an extent to the reverence received by Holyfield and Usyk for moving up to the glamour division and becoming the man (difference being they moved from cruiser to the now more commonly sizeable heavyweight of the likes of Bowe and Lewis.)

Lower weights leap between the classess or build a body of work around their comfortable weight. Cruisers don't get to do the former. They have to move to the hic sunt dracones land.

Joshua avenged the slip against Ruiz, and though he is by no means a great champion, he was by all means a number two in the division along Wilder, right behind Fury who is no eager to enter the ring either. Usyk's criticism at heavy always devoles into noting how he took his times getting used to the weight (Chisora, Witherspoon fights etc.) and forgetting that the further hurdles were caused by war, a rematch clause, and Fury jeopardizing the negotiations. By the end of 2022 everybody was certain April/May is the date for the Undispited.

 

Would have disagreed with you if he won a close fight after the Naoya performance earlier this week. BUT AFTER TODAY.... sheeeesh #1 by about half a mile!

 

At Bridgerweight

Usyk is a 6'3 Heavyweight Olympic Gold Medalist while Wilder was one at Bronze. The modern Cruiserweight has a 200 pound weight limit which means the top fighters rehydrate heavier than 200, LOL at this "usyk is a small man, oh noes, lets give him extra credit" bs. You proved my point with Wilder that weight disparity doesn't mean anything at Heavyweight, nobody is giving extra credit for Wilder knocking out men who out weigh him by 40 pounds at HW and claiming it's the same as Sebastian Fundora knocking out Cruiserweights, it's ****ing stupid. Does Alexander Povetkin, another Olympic Heavyweight Gold Medalist who was shorter with a shorter reach than Usyk get extra extra credit for his accomplishments at HW? A shot 6'1 midget knocking out the giant 6'8 David Price who outweighed him by 30 pounds, has to be the best win of the century. Mike Tyson? Actually lets not even go there.

 

6'2 and career cruiserweight are in the same sentence for a reason. 6'7 and career heavyweight is in the same sentence for a reason. It implies that in spite of it providing a degree of indication, there is also an inclination towards a certain weight class irrespective of inches. Certain fighters carry given weight better or worse, based on their frame, natural musculature, stockiness and whatnot. Frank Sanchez is more or less the same height as Usyk but the latter would be in no way comfortable just getting into the ring at 245 like Sanchez did when he wanted to punch his opposition out moving forward.

Amateurs =/= professional ranks. Period. Different attributes needed, different game, different difficulties between weight classes. The amateur heavyweight limit is actually the professional cruiserweight limit, and really, arguing the weights pre and post amateur is a drag (Wilder fought his entire amateur career at the 90kg limit; around the time Usyk could be still seen as an amateur middleweight or light-heavyweight; Beterbiev spend majority of his amateur career at light-heavyweight but met with Usyk in a bracket at 2012 heavy. We know how their careers turned out.)

And no, cruiserweight is not a division of dehydrated heavyweights. Most of them (there are outliers obviously) wouldn't be in a favorable match ups above the 200 where the top will belong to naturally stockier, harder punching, and more durable fighters as opposed to what they would meet below.

 

Crawford is clearly P4P #1