Itauma...Wardley...Parker...Kabeyal...these are the guys Usyk was allegedly afraid of?

They're the top guys so Usyk was not right to skip them. Eventually he did the right thing by dropping the belts but he should've been fighting them rather than Verhoven who he ended up almost losing to, and that fight is a classic example of just why it should always be important for champs to defend against top guys. We can assume Usyk would've won easily against the likes of Parker and Kabayel but you never know for sure. Most assumed Itauma would beat Hrgovic, that Usyk would destroy Verhoven, etc. if they get to the top of the division then they should get a shot whether or not we think they'd lose. If we gave all champs a pass for not defending against guys we think they'd beat then Ali never gets a title shot against Liston or Foreman, Fury never gets a shot at Wlad, etc.

 

Well at the end of the day we'll see how an unbeaten heavyweight record consisting of Fury, Joshua, Dubois, Chisora stacks up historically to the greatest heavyweights

 

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The icy image of father time I think was seen in the rear view mirror clearly for the first time against Verhoeven and he wisely concluded it was time to let go of the belts, a fighter cannot remain at the top forever and those challengers are not going to motivate him the same way which increases the chances of a defeat.

 

Kabayel has a belt so he will be remembered historically

To the extent guys like Joshua and Fury are remembered mainly for being belt holders

 

An obese Franklin with gyno too.

But I do think Usyk should've/should fight a Parker, Kabayel or Wardley to add another name on his resume. That's the main complaint from the critics, that Usyk's resume at HW is too thin.

 

Hopefully the guy he loses to is better than Andy Ruiz

 

They build out his historically thin heavyweight resume, and depending on what they go on to achieve after he retires they could end up SIGNIFICANTLY improving his overall resume in the way that Vitali improved Lennox's. Parker would've been a good name as resume wise he's a top 5 guy of his era and was on a good run but Usyk fought Dubois again instead.

And beyond just how they'd serve his resume, it was still his obligation to fight them as champion regardless of what they'd do for him. If he didn't care to defend he should've dropped the belts sooner like Crawford did when he retired.

 

I wouldn't say he was afraid of them, but he didn't fight any of them either and was very inactive.

Glad he dropped the belts because now the division can actually move on again.