It is quite an amazing phenomenon. Briedis, Chisora and the two fights against AJ were away fights and against a superstar for AJ. Pacquiao, Golovkin, Whitaker, Hagler, Kovalev and I forget some have taken draws and losses for less tight fights than those of Usyk.
Corruption at the highest level. Usyk was awarded fights he actually won. A true scandal if you ask me.
The rare case when politics doesn't make it worse but helps, in that case, helps for giving the wins he deserved.If he wasn't from Ukraine, but from other country, we know, even winning 8,9 rounds could lead to "112-116" or sort of that.I would say more, in that turbulent time, if he wasn't from political interesting country(for USA and UK), we could never seen him(at all or) getting many title fights early in his career starting from his 10th fight.
Feldmangate shouldn't just be filed away. The clown might have helped prompt Joshua's meltdown with his clown card.
Yeah, like, imagine if he was from China trying to win on the cards in Saudi Arabia given their treatment of Sunni practicing Uighurs Oh wait...
The Briedis fight was genuinely close. Aside from that Usyk's always won by clear margins, at least 8-4. In a way Usyk was lucky that the AJ rematch happened in the middle of the Russo-Ukrainian war, or they might well have robbed him.
He's had a grand total of 2 home judges for all of his world title fights. If he was an American fighting at home he would often or regularly have three of them for world title fights, even ones against foreigners, and a home ref at least 99% of the time too. The only fight that was genuinely razor-close was Briedis. If you think Chisora was or either of the AJ fights were you DKSAB. The fact that one of the judges scored the rematch to AJ, one of the others only had Usyk winning by a round, and ditto for the first fight is a disgrace. AJ won four rounds max and that's if you're being generous to him And as the other poster said. Usyk always finishes strong This content is protected This content is protected
A fighter that isn't from one of the major ones that didn't get robbed (yet). There were multiple attemps though. Howard Foster would probably had the first fight a draw if Usyk didn't dominate the 12th. Glenn Feldman was basically wearing a ski mask last saturday. And don't forget the Bellew cards at the time of the KO. He can't cut it anyway near close, and has to finish very strong to not get shafted on the cards it seems.
None of those were tight - they were competitive (more so Breidis) - but they were all very clear Usyk wins.
I have 115-113 Usyk against Briedis and Joshua II. Golovkin beat Canelo more broadly and took a draw and a loss. Same for Pacquiao against Bradley and Horn.
Usyk - Joshua II wasn't close for me on a 2nd watch. Sizeable punchers (especially ones that have the crowd wet everytime they windmill the air) often seem to have advantage in the cards when the fight is scored live. The threat of a KO and the illusion of ring control due to size makes those few successful moments Joshua had more pronounced that they really were. Usyk was much more active, with overwhelming amount of scoring punches and defense that diffused most of what AJ had to offer. The bum should be grateful for the split decision.
I re-watched the fight yesterday and scored it. Watching it live I had it 117-111 for Usyk, but watching it more carefully with less emotion yesterday I had it 118-110 for Usyk. Joshua was missing a LOT of punches. He only won rounds 2 and 9. The judges have NOT been kind to Usyk. He won fights by much wider margins than the scorecards indicate.