Oleksandr Usyk is the only Eastern European fighter to ever beat boxing.

He also had 5 losses to Vitali's 2, relied on A-side advantage more and Vitali is considered the favourite prime for prime, rightly or wrongly. Wlad also certainly didn't beat anyone as good as Vitali. So it will always be debatable.

 

Fury is. AJ is a very good win just a tier below an ATG. Dubois is a solid B+ or so fighter on par with someone like Cooney (though much better imo). What makes it even more impressive is that Usyk is giving up a huge size advantage against very good fighters and still winning. Not many of the greats can say the same

 

Athletes can be past their prime at 30 or in their prime at 40 but even if they're not, there's a question of how past their prime they are and even whether their opponent is in their prime. If you have home and A-side advantage, had one of your best career wins within the last year, and then lose by a wide margin to a fighter in his 1st world title fight, it's going to hurt your legacy. And it's also going to hurt you if you get KO'd by someone later outslugged by Ruiz and destroyed by Dubois.

Wlad also could have avoided losses by ducking Puritty, Sanders or Brewster but he fought them and lost. It inevitably affects how highly he's rated.

 

"They have to prove it which they never did."

lol. Who were bigger scalps than Fury, Joshua and Dubois when Usyk beat them?

 

I would favor Ortiz over anyone Vitali beat thats how poor his resume is. People can believe whatever they want.

No different than thinking Itauma beats Usyk which will always be debateable unless they fight

 

I agree, strangely for me he is like Usyk. I have Wlad very high on my H2H list as he passes the eye test without having a stellar list of opponents. But he has a much longer list....

 

I think Usyks wins over the three you mention are very impressive. I guess what defines this is how do we define ATG..Fury and AJ are nowhere near my top ten..and neither is Usyk. But then, thats only my opinion and discussing things like this is really interesting for me. Thanks for your useful, informative post

 

Exactly . A really great boxer faces the opponents and even scores a loss to fight the title back . Ducking the opposition to artificially protect his "zero losses" is the worst thing he can do for the sport and the fans .

If we talk usyk i think he has great skills and is a great boxer but he will end up as a paper champion without any real legacy if he continues ducking and fighting ( if at all ) only completely shot guys . I hope he will change his path

 

Lomachenko absolutely dominated at 126 and 130. Made guys quit. You musta forgot.

 

Either would have been excellent towards proving Wlad's chin. Wlad shoudl ahve rematched Sanders immediately, instead, letting his brother take him.

Parker is regrettable and I hope he makes it right. The other two are complete non-factors. Zhang will be remembered to history as a curiosity, and Sanchez completely forgotten.

 

The resume of virtually every heavyweight of this era aside from arguably Usyk is absolute garbage by the standards of prior eras. Fury the supposed number 2 beat 3 consensus top 10 heavyweights which is less than John Ruiz.

If I were you I wouldn't expect anyone from this era aside from Usyk to be remembered fondly by future fans. If they are remembered at all it will probably be their bad performances (Ruiz, Ngannou) because they were so shocking.

 

Well, yeah, that is what the thread is about. Usyk is the one who cleared the bar. Exactly.

 

I remember him. Impressive solid build. Was he on the cover of Ring with D Guinn and maybe Joe Mesi?

 

Legendary amateur career, Olympic gold, undisputed cruiserweight, undisputed heavyweight against divisions that are considered to have been in relatively good shape. I don’t think it matters which region of the planet he comes from, very very few will ever step in the ring and achieve such a run of accomplishments. I would like to see him beat a couple more decent fighters in the hw division before hanging them up but just icing on the cake.

 

As far as Wlad goes the guys who would have enhanced his legacy the most are almost exclusively guys Vitali didn't beat. Fighting all the following is unlikely due to time constraints but they would have done the most to enhance his legacy.
Fury
Ortiz
Wilder
Kabayel
Parker
Usyk
Breidis

Usyk was fighting at cruiserweight but if he'd moved up to fight Wlad it would have been seen as a huge win due to what he did subsequently.
If he fought Fury years earlier he would have had a better shot of winning.

So I can't buy the argument that his brother shared the era with him when the most important omissions from his resume are guys Vitali didn't fight. This is due to the era getting a lot stronger towards the end of his reign