And boxrec is infallible based on what exactly? Usyk should not have been fighting this guy in the first place regardless of exactly how many boxers you have beating him. Surely that's not a controversial take. Why would anyone have preferred this fight to Kabayel?
Now you're off on a red herring. Walcott is acting like Rico is a bum when he's clearly much better than a ton of pro boxers. And we all know why this fight happened. Because Turki has the money and Turki makes the rules. Nobody preferred this fight to Kabayel.
And yet you said this prior to the fight. And now because Usyk struggled you're changing the narrative that's called being biased towards a fighter. We don't have to pretend Rico is some H2H monster at boxing just be unbiased and tell it like it is. Usyk took what he perceived as a gimmicky money fight he underestimated his opponent and it almost comeback to bite him in the ass. Usyk also being inactive aswell as being 39 years old also probably contributed to what happened aswell. We don't need all the other added mental gymnastics Usyk had a bad night he got through it and that's it in a nutshell end of story.
I know this might be too difficult for you to comprehend, but let's try. I took what I knew about Rico and determined he wouldn't be much of a test for Usyk. Then I saw how he fought and looked in the ring and how well he stuck to Peter Fury's game plan. Being a rational person who isn't trapped by my own biases, I changed my opinion. Walcott, the person I was conversing with, has seen the fight, too. He saw how good Rico was in there. He saw the man's size, strength, and insane stamina over 11 rounds which no one could have predicted. What conclusion did he come to? Did he change his opinion, too? No. He continued to suggest that Rico was complete garbage and worse than any pro boxer. After being called out on that he shifted the goalpost to Top 50. Usyk absolutely, positively, 100% had a very bad night at the office. That doesn't change the fact that Rico performed spectacularly. That is the general opinion of everyone here on this forum now after the fight. That despite what we all thought, Rico was much better at boxing and somehow has such crazy stamina that he was able to move constantly for 11 rounds against Usyk. If Usyk had had a bad night at the office and Rico was a bum, he'd have still been dealt with in the first half of the fight. Or he'd have been down on the cards the whole way and then stopped. Instead, he was ahead and almost lasted until the end before damn near getting decapitated. So maybe stop being a snob and give the man some credit.
It's not difficult to comprehend that you clearly changed your narrative based on how the fight transpired which shows a clear sign of bias. Now you're trying to conjure up that Rico is some H2H monster at boxing. You're also backpedaling on what you said that's hypocritical. Also snob ? Are you for real ? I've give Rico plenty of credit in a thread I made here ? https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/non-biased-opinion-on-usyk-rico.749688/ And I've also been very fair to Usyk giving proper context on why he struggled ? But your narrative has took a complete 180 turn from "Rico goes down in kickboxing from a swift breeze" and "Usyk will carry him" To now apparently Rico is a top level boxer ? And now when anyone criticises the fight and it does deserve some criticism no boxer is above criticism. You go off on one about people being nostalgic and biased ? But yet your narrative about Rico prior to the fight was the complete opposite of what you're saying now ? How can you not see that isn't biased ? Marquez was one of my favourite boxers of the modern era. But if he was an active champion and fought a kickboxer in a fight sanctioned for a world title and then looked bad i'd also criticise Marquez. It doesn't mean all the great things Marquez achieved are suddenly forgotten. But you can have constructive criticism for a fighter even if you're a fan. People are going to be critical of Usyk's performance and rightly so most fans weren't happy with the fight to begin with. And add to the fact the way the fight transpired and boxings reputation did take a bit of hit fans are rightly not pleased. It doesn't make them haters or nostalgic unless they say stupid stuff like "Usyk was always overrated blah blah".
You clearly don't know boxing, I very much doubt he is top 25, not even close to top 10 or top 6 like one of your other fellow dreamers claimed. Rico is a nobody in the boxing world, he got the fight purely because of his persona and social media following, pure and simple, just like you.
I'm fairly certain him being an ATG kickboxer had something to do with it. He was lined up as AJ s february tune up opponent before this anyway. Turki wanted Rico vs a top boxer,and he was gonna get his chance either way.That s why he got this fight.
Of course it helped, but he has been all over social media these last few years with the likes of Tom Aspinall, Eddie Hall, etc. And seeing some of his kickboxing fights, it makes it look even worse for Usyk.
He was on that Helwani show earlier, I didn't like that almost everything he said was pretty much heavily biased in his own favour, like he took every single thing about the fight and presented it as if Usyk only won 2 rounds and uppercutted him and he was unfairly stopped. He even claimed that he was completely outboxing him and he can't see how anyone had it a close fight. That's too much for me, he needs to reign it in, he did incredibly well but it was competitive even if I still had him leading if the fight continued into the 12th. Helwani picks his favourite then doesn't shut up praising them all interview he's a decent interviewer except he only ever plays to the ego of whoever comes on his show. He should be proud of that performance but claiming it was some illegal and shocking thing in this sport is silly, I hated the stoppage but there's nothing that needs to go to court.
We need Larry Merchant to do the post fight interrogations instead we get presenters who ask nothing and don't dig for any real home truths or raw emotions. I remember Lennox started getting annoyed and grabbed the mic off Merchant declaring "Look at the state of his face, Larry, I was just getting started, he's lucky the fight was stopped."
Aye. Boxing journalists today are jokes. Merchant called em like he saw em weather right or wrong and I loved him for it.