Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Usyk vs. Fabio Wardley

Wardley is one-dimensional defensively but his shoulder-roll-counter technique is far better than Dubois walk-forward-and-get-punched-in-the-face technique tbh.

Looking at their most recent fights

Dubois:

1) Usyk landed at will
2) Aj landed hard at least once.
3) Hrgovic landed at will
4) Miller landed almost at will, early on, less so as he got tired.
Bonus) Slow punchin Juggernaut Joe also landed massively at will.

Wardley:
1) Outlanded "superior boxer" Parker
2) Huni landed at will.
3) Clarke did land quite a bit tbf in the first fight but iirc was still out-landed by Wardley.
4) Power punching Adelaye didnt really get near.

Wardley's skills nore generally are becoming underrated because of his lack of amateur record but to me he actually looks ok and his pro record supports the view that he is a mediocre technician with tremendous power at world level rather than a terrible technician with tremendous power.

 

Wardley impressed me today. He was moving very well; I thought he was ahead or in a draw. Tremendous chin. Throws all the punches; landed a couple heavy body shots. Moderate but not great hands although only many saw the tenner he slipped to Foster after the 9th round.

However. Usyk is of course another animal. He would not be taking those
combinations cleanly, and he'd be slapping Wardley at will.

I voted KO but a UD is more likely.

I think Fabio has a great future.

 

Usyk by schooling

 

i was rooting for Parker in this fight, mainly because he's such a likeable person. I'm sad for him. However, I can't lie and say part of me isn't kinda relieved that Usyk vs Parker is now off the table. It would have been such a boring, one-sided fight and it was obvious that Turki thought the same and wasn't keen on it. Wardley makes things a whole lot more exciting. Yes Usyk will box his head off round by round but Wardley proves time and time again, rule him out at your own peril. One thing I'm almost certain of, is that Usyk ain't knocking Wardley out. This guy's chin is just ridiculous.

 

God has chosen Wardley to be undisputed. Why? Don't know. But God has. Wardley wins via KO.

Ok, I don't really think that, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's a combo of his excellent chin letting him hang in there, his intangibles, combined with his big power and his lack of experience. The lack of experience is a weird superpower for a puncher, because he ends up throwing from weird angles that no properly schooled fighter ever would (and his chin lets him hang in there when he gets tagged for it).

 

I wanted the Usyk fight purse for Parker, but held no illusions about the outcome. I gave Parker very little chance of beating Usyk. Especially the Parker we saw tonight -- I give him 0% chance. Dropping his hands constantly.

Wardley has this weird X factor about him and that big power. He's got a non-zero chance.

Kabayel is the biggest danger to Usyk, I still think.

 

Yeah, Kabayel is my ideal opponent for Usyk, no doubt. Plus in my opinion, he completely deserves it. It kinda feels to me though that making a heavyweight title fight nowadays that doesn't involve either a Brit or an American is almost impossible, which is ridiculous. It shouldn't matter what nationality the fighters are, as long as the best fight the best. You watch how quickly it takes Turki to make Usyk-Wardley now they have a Brit involved.

Kabayel-Wardley though, imagine that. What a fight that would be.

 

Oh god, now that there's a Brit, the fight is probably announced within a week. Take Americans off the table though, as we (I'm American) don't have anything to offer there. We've got about the best overall spread of P4P fighters out there right now, but we have Jack **** at HW. Want to do a 5v5 P4P (so, no HW's) in country vs country, I think we can beat anyone if we use certain weights. 115, 135, 154, 160-168 (Crawford), 175. Only potential weak link I see there is 175, where we obviously send in Benavidez, who might well lose to Beterbiev or Bivol. Otherwise, good luck world.

Ok I'm half drunk and rambling.

Kabayel-Wardley would be great. No doubt. Absolute war.

 

America have 135-154. Thats all.

Lightweight - Light Middleweight. You can throw Bam in at Fly - Super fly if you really wanted too.

 

Usyk will knock him out. Wardley has a good chin but Usyk is a big puncher when he chooses to be.

 

Fully agree, and you have a scarily high accuracy rate when it comes to when Usyk is gonna stop someone lol.

Usyk is way too slick, and has massively underrated power.

 

True, but if you did have good American heavyweights, they'd be treated the same way no doubt. In fact, I feel it's partly why Wilder was able to reign for so long. It's like they think Brits or Americans won't be interested if one isn't involved. Maybe it's the casuals they're thinking of, rather than us die-hard boxing fans. Never seems to affect UFC viewership though, majority of their champions are foreigners and regularly have title fights against other foreigners, and yet they're super popular.

Personally, as a Brit, a fighter's nationality is not important to me at all. I don't look at individual sports the same way as I do team sports, with players playing for their countries. Like I say, I was rooting for Parker.

 

I'll wait until we know who is "officiating" from inside the ring and perhaps outside of it