Oleksandr Usyk in the 30s.....

I don't agree with this. He has completely cleaned out one of the toughest era's in Cruiserweight history. Before that he competed on an international level and was clearly the top amateur in his weightclass( 335 wins as an amauter) He had been a dominant fighter for quite some time against the toughest competition available. We shall see what he does when he gets his opportunity against Joshua.

 

If any of today's big men would be comfortable with 15 round fights - surely we would point to Usyk, right? Or do you think those extra 3 rounds would be a problem for him?

 

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I tend to agree with this. Usyk combines size with speed and skill, and in my opinion he'd run through them. Schmeling is an interesting matchup but, I suppose we have to remind ourselves that Max could sometimes fall flat against much less inspiring opposition than Usyk (eg his horrible Baer gameplan) and that Usyk's fight night weight is a relatively shredded 208lb at cruiser. Schmeling would be giving up at least 20lb to a bigger, faster man, which is not a good look. That said, Schmeling had pretty good head movement and was not bad defensively. He sometimes reminds me of ... well ... a smaller version of Usyk.

 

Damn you're young, I was like 13 when I first joined here lol