Lets be honest Ward would make Usyk and Briedis look like bums

First Mchunu wasn't easily getting inside on Usyk, Usyk was getting inside on Mchunu, and Thabiso isn't known for his inside fighting, Mchunu boxes well from range, and kept Usyk honest with his jab for about 3 rounds, and even they were highly competitive. Mchunu as I've previously mentioned several times on here, may in fact be one of the one skilled fighters Cruiserweight has to offer, when I did my thread on him 4 years ago, before the Makabu match, I compared him to Mayweather, because I held him in that high regard. Granted since then he's gone on to lose to Junior Makabu, Usyk and Bejenaru, Mchunu was dominating Makabu through the first 6, rocked him so badly he almost KO'd him in the 3rd, but then after the sixth, the relentless pressure from Makabu finally started getting to him, and he finally got caught and wilted late, now keep in mind Makabu has a near 100% KO ratio against opponents he's beaten, he's a massive puncher, as far as the Bejenaru loss goes, no one's seen that match, it was held in upstate NY where Bejenaru is based, were the cards overly generous, most likely, but he was coming off of a stoppage loss to Usyk, so maybe his head wasn't back in the game yet. That being said, Bejenaru is a relentless pressure fighter, with a decent chin and is undefeated for a reason, he's good. Regardless, Mchunu has wins over Chambers, Durodola, Bruwer, Muller, and Venter, all decent scalps, especially when considering Chambers was coming off of what should have been a win over Adamek, who's gone on to beat a couple of decent Heavies since. Mchunu will give any and everyone problems at Cruiserweight, and is still capable of beating the pretenders. There's zero shame in losing a round or two to Mchunu, Ward would too. Quite frankly, I'm not 100% sure Ward even beats Mchunu at CW.

Cruiserweight is easily one of the BEST divisions in the sport, sure, many of the guys there have a few losses, but hey, isn't that what's so great about hyper competitive divisions like Heavyweight was back in the late 60's and early 70's, the top guys are evenly matched,, so they hand each other L's all the time? Not only is Usyk, Gassiev and LebEdev top tier talents, but add to that list, Brieidis, Dorticos, Vlasov and Glowacki. There are also several other remarkably good upcoming talents and slightly past it war horses, that are still in the mix, like Askin, Cieslak, Goulamirian, Kashinsky, Makabu, Mchunu, Merhy, Tabiti, Lerena, Arslan, Ngabu, Papin, Fayfer, Bejenaru, Masternak, Szello, Nielsen, Egorov, Tervel Pulev, Okolie, Chamberlain, Havnaa, Mezencev, Wlodarczyk and yes Perez.

This isn't the "old" Cruiserweight division, its the "new" Cruiserweight division, the only guys from Light Heavyweight that are residing there at the moment are Fonfara, Sillakh and Vlasov, Fonfara won't last long, he struggled against glass jawed Sillakh, he gets sparked out by the first legit CW he shares the ring with, Vlasov was a massive LHW, who's clearly found the right division, skillset wise, he's not only improved, but vastly improved, its visibly apparent to anyone who was a fan of his back at LHW, like myself, some guys can and do get better and try to improve their game, Vlasov is one of those guys. Bellew also clearly better suited for the higher weights, its not like he didn't go on to beat David Haye by stoppage twice or anything. The Stevenson match at LHW was his last match there for a reason, he couldn't make the weight anymore.

You do realize that Mike Perez is a HEAVYWEIGHT don't you? And as a HW, while I wasn't the biggest fan, he lost twice and had one draw, against a guy that went 11 rounds with Anthony Joshua before being British stoppage stopped in Takam, one of the most skilled Heavies there is, the two losses were to Jennings, who went the distance with Wlad, and is also based purely on skillset one of the best Heavies there is, as evidenced by the fact that even though he lost by KO, he still managed to win more rounds off of Luis Ortiz than Wilder did. A point deduction made the difference in that fight, otherwise it would have been a close loss for Jennings or a draw. The other loss, Perez was having personal problems, he was a drunk, against a roided to the gills Alexander ****ing Povetkin, who would literally kill the majority of the Light Heavyweight division if they shared the ring with him.

Briedis beat him more definitively than anyone he's faced to date aside from Povetkin, and that loss should have an asterisk beside it. Perez is not a walk in the park for anyone, if you think he is, you're delusional.Ad to that Briedis moved up to HW for a fight, and managed to KO Charr cold, as in, I thought he was dead KO'd, quicker than Povetkin did, and quicker than VItali, Briedis has an immaculate skillset, and I've long rated him as one of the best Cruisers in the world, and the one guy I feared the most for USyk to have to face, well, he proved my fears to be justified, by showing he was as skilled as I said he was, yet Usyk still legit beat him.

And as a sidenote, Dorticos had never been down as a pro, and is a vicious KO artist with a near 100% KO ratio, not sure where you're getting your info, unless you got Dorticos confused with Yunieski Gonzalez and Umberto Savigne, but Dorticos would decapitate both of them.


Weight divisions exist for a reason, especially when there's 25 pound difference between two of them, Ward barely got past Kovalev, after all, he needed two matches to beat him convincingly, and I'm not saying this to denigrate Kovalev, I love Sergey dearly, he's perhaps my favorite boxer and aside from IB, I'm easily his biggest hyper on the site, Kovalev would be slaughtered by Usyk, Gassiev, Dorticos and Briedis, he and Ward are both too small for the division, and their skillset while superlative, Usyk is not only their equal, but may be superior, the other three are right there as well, and if their skillset did fail them, they'd just maul Ward and Kovalev right out of the ring.

 

I guess so. Because I don't think you could be more wrong. How many Mchunu matches have you actually seen if I may ask?

You fail to see how CW is one of the best divisions, how many CW matches have you seen from say the last 3 years?

Dorticos couldn't KO Miranda, duly noted, he did manage to rock the hell out of him early, that being said, why couldn't Kovalev KO old man Hopkins or Ward and Chilemba? You can't KO them all, perhaps Miranda's chin was just stronger at CW, like Bellew's.

Lebedev is a masterful boxer, his only legit loss was due to an eye injury inflicted on him by a roided up Guillermo Jones. Gassiev having issues with him, wasn't a shock, I'd initially picked Lebedev to win, that how highly I regard Denis.

Gassiev boxed off the backfoot for the majority of his match against Dorticos, that tells you all you need to know about Dorticos' power, Gassiev is usually a lot more aggressive.

Ward is also far more fragile than Lebedev, and far more featherfisted.

Ward decided to retire to avoid Beterbiev and Gvozdyk, it took him two matches to beat the Krusher, he figured he might not be so lucky against either of them, not because there was no money at CW, it was just too risky to hang around at 175 or move to 200.