Johnny Nelson thinks he would have beaten Usyk

Exactly..Haye's mouth has always made promises he couldn't keep in reality.
I think Usyk would beat Haye and Nelson at the same time...possibly.
Haye was quick and had decent power but he gassed a lot in fights. I remember the Chisora fight he was getting desperate and blowing hard my suspicion at the time was if Derek had lasted another round Haye was in deep trouble.
As for Nelson he was awkward but pretty dull. I remember trying to watch a couple of his fights and I actually fell asleep on both occasions and it wasn't even late..
Usyk is just too skilled for those two the only one that's more a coin toss at Cruiser would be Holyfield. That would be a cracking scrap against the probably the two best to do it in that division.

 

Nelson did have a great Cinderella man type career, but yeah...no.

 

The way he schooled Chisora and Bellew?
Holyfield fought in a much tougher era
He went 24 rounds with Lewis
He had 3 fights with Bowe even beating him
He also beat Tyson when they were both past it

Tyson/bowe/Holyfield/Lewis all beat usyk

 

I agree mate. Usyk outclasses them both.

I think at the time of the Haye/Chisora fight, had Chisora had his more recent 'war' and all out positive training routine and attitude (that ironically Haye helped install into him) that has given Del his Indian summer run in his later career, back then with that attitude maybe it would have been a different outcome...

Oh, and as for Usyk/Holyfield @ Cruiser, I'm really on the fence with that one mate...lol ..and I'm not budging!

I just couldn't pick a winner of that dream fight with both men at their absolute peak.

I'd bloody struggle to pick either man to root for too as I'm a big fan of both.

Defo a match made in heaven mate.

 

Agree about Chisora he wasn't that focused back in those days and got robbed a couple of times which probably didn't help his mindset.
Yeah I'm the same with Usyk and Holyfield both fan friendly fighters who were always game taking the bigger challenges with no quit in either of them. It would be the best fight to make at that weight in a fantasy fight for sure and I couldn't commit to either winning I just think it's that competitive.

 

Had the fantasy Usyk/ Holy fight took place I'm pretty sure it would have lead to a rematch or possible best of three too.

Both would have been each others nemesis mate that's for sure.

Even both of them at heavyweight later down the line would have been mouthwatering too.

 

A trilogy would have been sweeeeeeeet..

 

Its good to have self belief.

 

Yeah, and I am not going to say it is a race thing per se, but there is definitely some tribalism going on. I think we would be fools to ignore the fact that Usyk won't be meeting Chisora, Nelson, Haye and Joshua at the pub for fish and chips and Guinness, or however you want to say it.

Its too bad we can't get above this kind of thing.

 

Well stated.

 

Wow! I couldn't agree more with your brilliant assessment of the negativity directed towards Usyk. Tribalism has definitely played a factor in the disrespect shown. By the way, what do you call a tribal poet? Shake-a-spear.