To all the people claiming Usyk is the greatest Heavyweight

The boxing nostalgists and the he's great but crowd would've crucified him had he lost to Dubois at the weekend despite him being 38.5 y/o

And just imagine what they would be saying if Dubois had pushed him on the backfoot and knocked him out. It would immediately cited as proof he would've lost to *insert great aggressive/pressure fighter's name* from a previous era

I saw someone today claim James Toney would beat him or they'd give him a very good chance of doing so

Toney has nothing, as skilled and slick as he was, in his arsenal that would ever enable him to beat Usyk

Usyk has an iron chin, great defence, fast hands and feet, is very athletic, fluid and coordinated, is physically strong, has amazing footwork, sublime skills, very high ring IQ, power, accuracy, versatility, adaptability, can overcome any style, can box equally well on the front or backfoot, stand in front of you and box your ears off using lateral movement, walk you down and beat you up, a fantastic engine, a fierce will to win, discipline, work ethic, and a big heart

And he's one of the mentally strongest fighters I've ever seen. He's fearless and has unshakable self-belief and you cannot intimidate him or break him mentally. He's never going to let the occasion, the magnitude of the stage, or intimidation tactics get to him.

He's bulletproof and he has no real weaknesses and his speed, skills, footwork, defence and elusiveness alone would cause many of the fellow greats lots of problems and be enough to get him the W against many of them, let alone when you factor all the rest and he's going to make all the SHW sized giants look cumbersome or more so than they are

Remember Usyk ''can't box on the backfoot'' and all you have to do to beat him is ''pressure him and push him back''

Except, duh, as I'm been saying for years, he can box on the backfoot as well as anyone and he has been doing it his whole career, amateur and pro, when he wants or feels the need to do so.

This guy he's fighting here was a great amateur: Olympic gold, World Amateur gold & bronze, and 2 x European gold medalist, went onto win gold in this tournament (Usyk won bronze) and he'd been boxing 14 years when they fought each other here, twice as long as Usyk had. It was the last time Usyk lost a fight and he definitely did not deserve to lose in my opinion and the opinions of many others.

Watch the first round and see how elusive Usyk is on the backfoot and in particular towards the end of it when he's slipping punches on the ropes and remind yourself that you're watching a HW (equivalent of CW in the pros) moving like that. He's as light on his feet and agile as a 135 pounder and his reflexes are razor sharp

This content is protected

Another instance of him boxing on the backfoot. A better example vs a pressure fighter. He's been doing it his whole career.

Just apply pressure. Yeah, and get your ears boxed off whilst you're swiping thin air

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

“I do believe if [Usyk] goes on the back foot, he wins every single round,” said Bellew. “He's the hardest man in the world to hit. If you let Oleksandr Usyk go on the back foot and you press him all night, you're in trouble, you're not going to catch him.

“Just watch the Murat Gassiev fight,” said Bellew, citing Usyk’s virtual shutout victory over the feared power-punching Gassiev, who struggled to land anything of consequence, “and you'll understand that's why I chose to box him. Chasing him is the worst thing in the world you could do.”

--Tony Bellew

 

I wish people would stop citing Usyk saying other fighters are better than him or are P4P#1 over him. He loves Ali but he's also incredibly humble and deeply religious and he's never going to put himself on that pedestal. He ranks opponents of his he's beaten twice above himself for goodness sake

This content is protected