Man, Usyk's cruiserweight division was good!

Badbot · Jul 1, 2025 at 1:14 AM

HistoryZero26 said: ↑

19 men have contended for the Bridgerweight title thus far and I think Mchunu is like 2nd or 3rd worst after Radchenko?

Two members of Usyks CW generation have had runs at HW in Gassiev and Hunter and they are borderline top 10 kind of guys. If we go back to the best LHW divisions HW credentaials thats nothing to write home about. Heck 1900s(the decade) had a MW division that was more successful at HW then Usyks CW.

You could argue Usyks CW era was the most successful at HW but CW in general does not have large amount of guys who could succeed at HW. A champion and 2 top 10-15 guys is not a high bar.
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No one of Usyks CW era made an actual effort and heavyweight, besides Hunter. And Hunter had a pretty good run.

Gassiev took two years away from the sport before returning at heavyweight. He then started fighting once a year.

Mchunu was 36 when he fought for a bridgerweight belt. At that point he was clearly past his prime.

The cruiserweight era was great because it was full of good cruiserweights. It doesn't matter that a few guys tried their hand at heavyweight later on.
That like saying that the Roman Gonzales super-flyweight era was not great because none of them had any real success at bantamweight.

Dynamicpuncher · Jul 1, 2025 at 4:19 AM

theanatolian said: ↑

I'm gonna go on a limb and say you weren't around at the time of first WSSB. There weren't any British or American fighters so the division wasn't being marketed to the casuals, you had to be there to understand it.

Glowacki, when Usyk snached his belt in his hometown, was coming off of 2 very good wins, one of which was him ending one of the longest title reigns in the division's history in FOTY over Huck. And that Huck was more or less the same guy that came very, very close to upsetting Povetkin at HW.

For Gassiev, you really had to be there to see what a monster he was at cruiser. He also ended the long reign of Lebedev who was a very skilled operator, destroyed Diablo who was faded but was still very capable. And then there was his fight against Dorticos. You can see Yunier still going strong pushing 40. He was at his best during first WSSB and Gassiev absolutely smashed him to bits. It was so brutal that It's hard to watch it again, even though It was a very good fight. That performance, the wrecking of Dorticos, was by all accounts a tremendous win and a great performance. It's right up there with Beterbiev's destruction of Gvozdyk.

It's extremely unfair to dismiss Gassiev as "overhyped" based on his struggles at HW. Yeah, he hasn't had the success that Usyk and Holyfield had at heavyweight, but who has? The night Usyk schooled and dominated Gassiev and snached his belts in his hometown to become undisputed was when he solidified himself as an ATG, long before he moved to HW.
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I was watching the WSSB at the time and I picked Usyk to beat Gassiev handily prior to their fight.

I admit I didn't think it would be quite as one sided as it was but I did expect Usyk to win a clear decision.

Again I'll stand by what I said I think Gassiev was a bit overhyped and Briedis would've beat him handily aswell.

Dynamicpuncher · Jul 1, 2025 at 4:37 AM

Serge said: ↑

Hardly fair to ignore that Gassiev had been extremely inactive after facing Usyk due to being ravaged with injuries, in particular a serious shoulder injury which he reinjured, underwent multiple surgeries on his shoulder, hand and nose, was sued my his promoters.

He had 4 fights in 5 years going into the Wallin fight, 3 of which lasted about 5 minutes max combined and the other one 4 rounds so barely any ring time at all in 5 years

And I almost forgot. He hadn't fought anyone with a pulse in those 4 fights in 5 years and for some dumb reason he decided to come in 15-20lbs lighter vs Wallin than he had been fighting at since moving up to HW and in his subsequent fight at HW since the Wallin fight.

But that version of Gassiev was the prime version, right? The prime version who became the unified champion at CW, was one of the most devastating and feared punchers in the sport , who was arguably the best left hooker and best body puncher in the game, and of whom it was hardly the best kept secret had KO'd numerous top HWs in the gym.

Ben Davison said many HWs have told him that Gassiev was the hardest puncher they shared a ring with and Sam Jones described Gassiev as the hardest puncher he'd ever seen after seeing him up close and personal sparring in the gym and video footage of him knocking out top HWs

Who beat Lebedev and KO'd the teak-tough Dorticos and Wlod who have been stopped a grand total of twice in 101 combined fights and that was by Gassiev

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A left hook from hell

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And I didn't think Gassiev vs Dorticos was close at all. I had Gassiev comfortably ahead and I think most had it that way too. He actually outboxed Dorticos and showed some new wrinkles to his game in that one and that his boxing skills were underrated
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It was close after 9 rounds until Gassiev pulled away in the championship rounds.

3 judges going into the 10th round all had it a 1 point fight with 1 judge having Dorticos ahead.

I think I had Dorticos winning 3 out of the first 4 rounds.

I think Dorticos also had a good argument to winning rounds 7 or 8 from memory although it's been a long time since I've seen it.

The fight was definitely up for grabs until as I said Gassiev really distanced himself from Dorticos in the final 3 rounds.

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Man, Usyk's cruiserweight division was good!

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Man, Usyk's cruiserweight division was good!

Badbot You can just do things. Full Member

Dynamicpuncher Boxing Junkie Full Member

Dynamicpuncher Boxing Junkie Full Member