Oleksandr Usyk vs Lennox Lewis

Sorry about the late reply I meant to reply sooner

There's plenty of it. Hating on him trying to discredit his achievements when we know how many picked these HWs to beat him or knock his head off and how few gave him a hope in hell of even winning one belt, let alone becoming undisputed and becoming the greatest HW of the generation.

It's not an unreasonable take to pick Lewis to beat Usyk but, likewise, it isn't an unreasonable to pick Usyk to beat Lewis and when you look at everything Usyk, and he possesses every attribute and intangible in his arsenal to at the very least give every HW in history a serious run for their money at his best, he brings to the table and the fact that we have actually witnessed him slay many giants many times and the huge problems all of his skills, style and attributes have caused them and have literally never seen Lewis fight a slick southpaw, let alone one as great and fast, skilful and elusive as Usyk it's bizarre how utterly convince many are that Lewis beats him, knocks him out, or does so with ease

This is true but many of the boxing nostalgists are smug elitists wannabe historians who look down their noses through their rose-tinted goggles and think every fighter from the black and white era right up to the 90s is superior to the ones of recent years and in particular North American ones and obscure ones from exotic or sexy parts of the world who they're so cool for being a fan of.

Many of them are just bitter that the sport is much more of a global one now and we no longer live in the good old days where American boxers dominate

As I have said many times before, they view everything from the past through the lens of rose-tinted goggles and everything of the present through the lens of a microscope.

Virtually all of their unbeatable gods from the good old days lost, lost many times, were knocked out or knocked down, or knocked out or knocked down many times, struggled badly in fights, or received gifts from the judges, and many to inferior or far inferior opponents but they act like they didn't

People can judge him off all his fights at HW whilst acknowledging and factoring his age and the respective ages of his opponents. Just like people do with Marciano and his opponents in HW title fights but obviously him being younger or much younger than them not older or much older

Maybe but I don't think Lewis would feel as confident opening up when facing a constantly moving slick target defensive master like Usyk who will make him miss more than he ever did in his career and punish him for doing so and Usyk is going to drain his energy bar when he's loading up and missing with his big shots as much as he would be.

Many often say things like this *insert the name of Usyk's opponent* who got the tactics wrong or was too cautious whilst not factoring it or completely discounting the fact that Usyk has a lot to do with what they're doing or not doing, or what he is allowing them to do and not do

Had AJ tried to walk Usyk down he would've been swinging and missing and made to look cumbersome and he would've been walking into big counters and got knocked out

Counters like this

Dubois actually did really well to remain vertical after eating some of those flush southpaw backhand counters of Usyk

This one in particular was a massive perfectly timed counter. That's knocking a lot of HWs out

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It helped but it was experience facing SHWs in the WSB but over 5 rounds, with amateur gloves and he was facing fellow amateurs. Fighting someone like Chisora over 12 rounds in a small ring which I do not believe was a mere coincidence and which would obviously make a huge difference when facing someone like Chisora, as in be a huge advantage for him, is different and he fought up at SHW in the WSB six or seven years earlier so it still would've been a big culture shock for him over 12 rounds.

Haye himself said how difficult he found it facing these much bigger and stronger HWs and how it really takes a toll on your body even when punches just land on your arms and shoulders and that includes during sparring too

Very few HWs can replicate what Chisora can do over 12 rounds. He applies constant pressure from the first bell to last, affording you very little respite, and he's so tough, determined and fit that it's virtually impossible to keep him off of you and dissuade him from coming forward and pressuring you, regardless of how big, strong and powerful you are

That's a really difficult thing to deal and I can't recall a single instance of any HW ever being able to keep Chisora off of them, let alone doing so in your first real fight at HW as a pro when you're conceding 40lbs, in a small ring, and Chisora has been training and preparing to fight you for 9 months under the tutelage of a former unified CW champion and small HW champion who knows exactly what Chisora needed to do to make it as difficult as possible for Usyk and had him working tirelessly in camp on learning how to cut down the ring vs awkward elusive southpaws

Also, Usyk weighed 215lbs for that fight and said he was injured. Said he hurt his left arm in the 1st or 2nd round (not sure if from a punch he took to the arm or one he threw) and that he injured his right elbow three weeks before the fight

There was also an issue with the padding in Chisora's gloves

I think they did all these things in order to try and protect AJ from Usyk because they viewed him as a massive threat to AJ. Don't forget E-Hearn was never keen on AJ facing Usyk in the first place and he would've preferred AJ to have relinquished the belt instead

I understand but I feel Chisora won clearly even though they were close fights. There's no way he didn't win 7 rounds for me so therefore he won

I said arguably his best. He was actually coming off wins going into the Usyk fight, whereas, he was 1-3 his last 4 going into the Haye fight albeit, as said, he was robbed vs Helenius and should've been 2-2 and his legit losses were to Vitali and Belly so no shame in that

To be fair to Helenius he was compromised by a serious shoulder injury and hairline fracture to his right hand in that fight,

HL reel KOs of Takam, Spzilka, TKO over Price and then Chisora was robbed vs J-Park in his next outing after facing Usyk which had the judges scored it in his favour would be his best ever win.

Yes I know he got KO'd by Whyte during that run but, as said, he was winning the fight, fought really well, and that KO loss had a lot to do with the ref's interference unfairly deducting a point from Chisora in that round after having done so in round 8 which forced him to put his foot on the gas and become reckless with only one more round to go

This is what I said re. that in the RBR

I said Chisora took training more seriously, as in his S&C work

 

I'd like to see him face J-Park next but he was contractually bound to fight 2 of the 3 opponents he rematched and there was a lot of controversy after the Dubois fight and he wanted to set the record straight and punish Dubois and their team for their disrespect. Had he not rematched him many would've held the first fight and that controversy against him.


Let's not forget this

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He is but it 100% would of. Like I said, Haye specifically worked hard on getting Chisora to learn how to cut off the ring and close the distance vs Usyk and they brought in a former tricky southpaw opponent of Chisora's against whom he had struggled to do that. Haye said Chisora really struggled to do so at first but that he had it down pat in a couple of weeks

Listen to what Haye says here

First 5 minutes

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Both of them are very durable and have either never been dropped as pros or have only been so once, by arguably the hardest puncher in the division man mountain Big Bang

And Chisora has more miles on the clock than Big Joe does

It might well do but everyone has a style that bothers them or that they struggle against but by the same token look at how many pick Lewis to beat Usyk despite never seeing him in with a slick southpaw, let alone one as great as Usyk


But when Usyk wants to he can box on the backfoot beautifully and if you stick him in a same size ring as the one he fought Chisora in obviously it would be much more advantageous to Mike and Frazier. Usyk is beating all these guys in their backyards and on the road with zero deck-stacking and trying to wangle advantages in his favour which would make fights easier or much easier for him.

He could be like: ''I'm fighting a much bigger pressure fighter, OK I want a big ring or I'm not signing on the dotted line'' but Usyk never does these things to help make the fights easier or less demanding for himself when so many others do or have, including many of his fellow greats



And Usyk finds a way to win against any and every style

We know they had good chins. We also know Chisora does too. Mavrovic was a good fighter but Lewis couldn't put a dent in him despite being way heavier and he was absolutely exhausted come the final round and he breathed a huge sigh of relief when the decision was announced because he knew how tough the fight had been an how exhausted he was come that final round. I honestly don't think he had another round in him and if he did he would've barely made it out of it but obviously I can't prove that.

Imagine Mavroric was 40lbs heavier than Lewis and it was Lewis' first real fight at the weight as a pro?