Last win in boxing that was better than Bud TKO9 Spence?

AJ was also a significantly bigger and significantly better opponent than Spence. His resume, even with the loss to Ruiz, is confirmation of that.

 

I don't have a huge issue rating AJ slightly above Spence. Significantly so? Idk about that though, for me at least. Outside of the Wlad win I'm not sure what basis one would have AJ as, not slightly but significantly higher than Spence, and the Wlad win is evened out a bit with getting demolished by a 16-1 underdog that has done little of real note outside of that one fight.

So idk. Not overly opposed to the idea but just not seeing it at the moment I guess.

I would note that while I know odds aren't overly significant, Usyk was the underdog in the first AJ fight, while of course Crawford was a slight favorite. While not overly significant, odds can help show how significant results are when comparing fights between simply rated fighters (in this case, top p4p fighters).

For me though, taking into account AJs size, and power... I understand it can't be expected to deal with him in the same manner that Crawford dealt with Spence, but it's hard for me to give Usyks victory the edge over such a one sided, masterful and easy victory as Crawfords was.

Personally I think the disparity in ability between Spence and AJ isn't wider than the disparity in ease and domination in which their opponents dealt with them.

Just imo though.

 

Beating a +250 underdog with next to no significant signature victories and 8 KOs in his career and in nobodys top 15 p4p, doesn't come close to beating a top 10 p4p fighter with multiple signature wins.

 

Hopkins was a significant underdog in each of those fights. Makes me wonder if he has the most upset wins of any modern fighter. Probably not but youd think he has to be up there.

I wouldn't say the Tito fight should compare, as Tito was significantly smaller than Hopkins.

Pavlik and Tarver fights I think are decent examples though.

 

Damn my bad lol.

 

Clearly based on the article I wrote the other day... Putting Crawford's Domination & Stoppage of Errol Spence Jr. Into Its Proper Perspective. I've never held Spence or his skill set in highest of regard, and with the utmost confidence, I've been picking Crawford to dominate and KO him for quite some time. So to me, the ease with which Crawford dominated him wasn't even the least bit surprising or shocking to me. I don't care about public perception or odds, I value my own judgment over theirs any day of the week. Quite frankly I value yours, IB, Serge and several others on here over theirs as well. So all of the billing and marketing of that fight means **** all to me. So obviously that takes a bit of the luster away both leading into and the night of, when you never see something as remotely competitive. Now obviously that doesn't mean Crawford isn't a top operator, he clearly is, but the fact that Porter, Kavaliauskas, Gamboa and even Benavidez gave him tougher fights is an indication of just how overrated Spence was going into the fight. It's not an indication of some mythical level Bud was able to kick it into.

As far as Usyk goes, sure I've done my fair share of criticizing of AJ, but if anyone ever asked me which of the two I view as being the more complete boxer, I'd have probably picked Joshua. My criticisms were more of a reaction to the delusional British fans hyping him up as the next Mike Tyson and a future all time great, while blinding themselves to his countless shortcomings and flaws. But on a fundamental level, when you peel back all of the BS, AJ's skill set if anything is being underrated now, with people randomly picking every Joe Schmoe they can think of to beat him. Which I find utterly ridiculous and the definition of recency bias. Unlike Spence, who's had the same style since day one, who's never shown the ability to change up his style or adjust. Most of that is due to being matched really well against featherfisted opponents who flattered him. AJ has had to face a veritable murderer's row of style clashes. Which forced him to learn how to adapt and frequently, sometimes making several adjustments per match.

Now, let's look at their actual resumes. I'll break their wins into A level, B level, C level and D level. At least at the time when he fought them.

Spence
A level
Crawford - Best wins, Porter, Postol, Horn, Kavaliauskas, Gamboa, Diaz, Benavidez and Brook. Spence was thoroughly dominated and TKO'd. Never even remotely competitive in the match.

B level
D. Garcia - Has never looked great at WW, coming off of two long layoffs, countless questionable decisions, only taking stay busy fights against subpar opponents. Was contemplating retirement. Very little power at 147. Best at 140.
Porter - Arguably lost to Shawn, who was coming off of barely scraping by Ugas, Garcia and looking bad against Granados. Another featherfist. Losses against Thurman and Brook.
Brook - Best win, his MD over Porter, no other notable wins. Coming back down from 160 and having his face caved in by GGG. Which takes a degree of luster off of this win.

C level
Ugas - Barely beat Dulorme, Ghvamichava, Ramos, based on styles had a close match with Porter and beat an old shot Pacquiao. Always had a questionable chin and featherfists. Lost to Amir Imam.
M. Garcia - 135 pound fighter, win is insignificant.
Peterson - Coming off of losing to Garcia, getting a gift against Felix Diaz and barely scraping by Avanesyan. Went on to be brutally KO'd by Lipinets in his next match. A noted featherfist.
Algieri - I love Chris, but all this match proved was that Spence was better at cutting off the ring than Provodnikov (who isn't?) and has better killer instincts than Manny.

D level
Ocampo - Best win is Mikael Zewski. Pitiful opponent.
Bundu - Best win, barely beating Frankie Gavin, featerfisted and horrendously crappy opponent.
Barrera - No notable wins, stay busy opponent. Amount of SD wins is off the charts.
Van Heerden - Best wins, Cecil McCalla and Steve Claggett. A SD and an MD. Featherfisted.
Lo Greco - Zero notable wins before or after, claim to fame, featherfisted Porter victim.
Vargas - Stay busy opponent, zero notable wins, claim to fame, tough journeyman.



Joshua
A level
Usyk - Lost to him twice, a Cruiserweight ATG, with an incredible resume, with wins over Briedis, Gassiev, Glowacki, Hunter, Bellew, Chisora, Huck, Mchunu, with semi-pro wins over Majidov, Fa, Nistor and Joe Joyce. AJ tried his heart out, but was overmatched.
Klitschko - ATG, coming off of loss to a hyper cautious terrified Fury, before that a damned near 12 year undefeated streak. With wins over everyone significant in the HW division, took AJ to the limit, in a FOTY candidate. Monster power.

B level
Ruiz - Has wins over AJ himself, Ortiz, Arreola and arguably got stiffed on the cards against Parker. Came back to win by dominant shutout. You and I, despite the odds, identified him to be a stylistic hiccup. Average power.
Pulev - 1 loss going in, at the hands of Wlad, had dominant wins over Hughie Fury, Chisora, Dimitrenko, Ustinov, Dinu, and went onto dominate Forrest and lose a controversial decision to Chisora in the rematch. Average power.
Povetkin - 1 loss going in, to Wlad. Dominant wins over Chagaev, Wach, Charr, Takam, Perez, Duhaupas, Wawrzyk, Rudenko, Hammer, Price, went on to UD Hughie, draw with Hunter and brutally KO Whyte. Devastating power.
Parker - Had wins over, Ruiz, Takam and Hughie. Went on to get stiffed against Whyte, beat Fa, Chisora and Massey. Lose to Joyce. Little power.
Whyte - Went on to beat Allen, Helenius, Rivas, Chisora, Wach, Povetkin, struggled with Chisora the first time as well as Franklin and Parker, but got the wins, got KO'd by Povetkin and Fury. Big power.

C level
Franklin - Not a great win, but arguably deserved the nod against Whyte, and while close, he has a win over Forrest.
Takam - Has gone onto take Makhmudov to the limit, beat Yoka, dominant win over Forrest. Before that, got stiffed against Perez, gave Parker hell. Light power, tough as nails journeyman.

D level
Martin - Coming off of Glazkov win, went on to give Kownacki, Jared Anderson and Ortiz hell, but lose. Good win over Washington. Decent power.
Molina - Gave Wilder fits, coming in off of KOing Adamek. Fell apart afterward and turned into a pisspoor journeyman. Decent power.
Breazeale - Coming off of wins over Kassi and Mansour, went on to beat Ugonoh, Molina, and Negron, then be sent into the shadow realm by Wilder. Decent power. Solid journeyman.

Now when you take into consideration, from a technical perspective, the AJ that Usyk fought was probably the best AJ we've ever seen, and kind of looked impressive throughout. Where Spence was coming off of three sketchy performances, one he should've lost, and the other two, he got badly rocked in and lost his composure. Clearly suffering from balance issues. Also, the car accident clearly has negatively affected him and he was chinny before it. He looked compromised and drained going into the ring. So yeah, the match based on styles was never even to start with. Then add in the extenuating circumstances. The wins over AJ were levels above Crawford's win over this version of Spence.